The Disappearers

James has written a masterpiece, the novel of the decade and possibly of the century thus far … It deserves to be talked about alongside Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children, for its tumult of language and its crisscrossing post-colonial themes; Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon (James picks up on a revenge scenario from that novel); and William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom! … The Disappearers was one of the signal reading experiences of my adult life. It sank knives deep into my heart. I’m still in recovery from it … You don’t finish The Disappearers. It finishes you * New York Times *
A scorching exposé of homophobia in Jamaica … Mighty, grand and peripatetic … Few books have mapped the beleaguered realities of queer existence with such psychological depth, harrowing realism and searing condemnation … James makes room for the contradictions of queer life, its intimacies, estrangements and hungers, in utterly indelible ways. His prose is a consistent triumph: bitter and hilarious, lyrical, bawdy, pugnacious and scorchingly, ravishingly queer. The Booker judges have described this novel as a “reckoning”; it is incontestably also a haunting … A remarkable novel * Guardian *
The Disappearers is among Marlon James’s most ambitious and history-making works, a novel that examines territory Caribbean literature has rarely dared to occupy … James is a singular literary talent. His dialogue is sharp and propulsive, his phrasing is poetic, visceral and capable of moving from the painful to the darkly hilarious within a single exchange – Booker Prize Judges
A tender and poignant novel … A masterful work, at times electrifying and reflective, with an elegiac quality that is captured in one of its many beautiful and truthful lines: “Loss always struck as a page that one turns, never to return to” * Observer *
A compelling examination of homophobia, erasure and survival … James is a mercurial writer of complexity, depth and uncompromising vision. The Disappearers — his first Jamaican-set novel since his 2015 Booker-winning A Brief History of Seven Killings — crackles with his anger and intelligence, but also, crucially, refuses to play anything safe … And with rigour, beauty and righteous anger, Marlon James exposes them in this exceptional and important novel * Financial Times *
James’s dialogue fountains down the page, as if a tap has been opened. Life pours from him … James roves among the attackers’ perspectives before and during the event, his experimental style, psychological acuity, and ragged lyricism on display … The Disappearers uses the tricks of fiction to pull off something extremely difficult: giving full weight to tragedy and injustice without implying that some lives are over before they’ve begun * New Yorker *
The Disappearers packs a punch on every single one of its 600-plus pages, up to and including its last … It’s an epic, virtuosic, propulsive performance, alternately hilarious and viscerally horrifying, that returns throughout to the acts of erasure perpetrated against, and forced upon, the men at its heart * Daily Mail *
This unrelentingly raw and profane vision is enlivened by the energy of the writing, and in particular its infusions of Jamaican slang. James does not simply reproduce the island’s singular patois; he uses it to create abrasive auditory rhythms * Wall Street Journal *
Spanning decades and encompassing a range of voices and narrative forms, this bold, electrifying book chronicles trauma, homophobia and marginalised lives * Economist *
A violence-driven protest, a scream of rage … harrowing book, to be sure, but never nihilist, or defeatist, or cynical. Its joy in ultimate survival comes through * Atlantic *

Marlon James is the author of:

• A Brief History of Seven Killings (Booker Prize winner)
• Black Leopard, Red Wolf (National Book Award finalist)
• Moon Witch, Spider King (New York Times bestseller)
• The Book of Night Women
• John Crow’s Devil

His novels have received numerous accolades, including the Booker Prize, the American Book Award, the Los Angeles Times’ Ray Bradbury Prize for Science Fiction, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize.

Born in Jamaica, James currently lives in New York City.

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