The Disappearers

Marlon James's triumphant return to the Jamaica of his Booker Prize-winning A Brief History of Seven Killings

'Darkness is a mood in Jamaica . . .'

The Disappearers is Marlon James's triumphant return to the Jamaica of A Brief History of Seven Killings - a place of heat and chaos, and of danger for anyone outside the heteronormal.

So when eight gay men meet for the first time, in Kingston in 1988, answering the casting call for an openly queer play, they are already taking a big risk. But that is nothing compared to what rains down on them when a mob descends on one of their rehearsals.

By the end of this night, one man is dead, all are injured, and two subsequently disappear.
As the survivors heal, each man finds he must confront the bigotry and homophobia that the attack laid bare. Some try to forget; some embrace their rage; and some simply vanish - but all are forever scarred.

As one of the victims puts it, 'there's a difference between when something ends and when something stops'. And this story won't stop until both the disappearers and the perpetrators have been tracked, along trails both hot and cold, and an ending reached.

Epic and intimate, violent and forgiving, The Disappearers is a tour de force which only Marlon James could have written - both an unflinching portrait of the hatred and shame faced by gay men in a society which refuses to accept them, and a deeply human story of acceptance and insight.

• Format: Paperback / softback
• Pages: 640
• Imprint: Hamish Hamilton
• Supplier: Penguin Random House Distribution
• Subjects: Code FA (scheme 12), Code 5S (scheme 12), Code 1KJWJ (scheme 12), Code 1KJ (scheme 12), Code 3MPQX (scheme 96), Code FV (scheme 93), Code 1KJWJ (scheme 94), Code 5TKJ-JM-A (scheme 98), Code FBA (scheme 93), Code FXS (scheme 93), Code 5PP (scheme 98), Code 5PSG (scheme 98), Code JBFA (scheme 93), award winning books; literary fiction; book club; books for women; lgbt fiction; great books; best books; great novels; novels; lgbt books; contemporary fiction; lgbt; gay books; fiction; gay fiction; booker prize; bestselling books; miami; john crow's devil; prize winning books; 1980s; america; queer; jamaica; the book of night women; a brief history of seven killings; man booker prize; postcolonialism; jamaican; irvine welsh; clash of cultures; community; social justice; survival; acceptance; an intimate portrait; rage; forgiveness; historical novel; human rights; lgbtq+