Book # 47 of 2011: the Leftovers by Tom Perrotta.
If you're not familiar with Tom Perrotta, he wrote Little Children, which became a film that was nominated for three Oscars, as well as Election (also a movie!), the Abstinence Teacher, and some other stuff that I know less about.
In addition to respect for his prior work, the premise of this book was really interesting--a "rapture" has happened, suddenly taking people from seemingly all walks of life, and now people are dealing with that (or trying to, anyway).
The novel's main focus is on a single family, but plenty of other neighborhood characters exist, too, from a woman whose entire family disappeared to a religious man on a quest to prove that the event was NOT the Biblical rapture by showing that everyone who disappeared was a bad person. And, of course, the faith healer who takes away people's pain...and sleeps with young girls to fulfill the "prophecy" about "his future savior son".
It was an engaging window into how different people deal with sudden tragedies and makes you wonder which path you would take.
Plus, there's the usual Tom Perrotta regular suburban people's relationship dynamics stuff.
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