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The Disappearers

The Disappearers

Literary FictionHistorical Fiction
Pages
616
Language
English

Synopsis

Kingston, Jamaica, 1988 — eight gay men rehearsing a play are attacked by a mob, and one is killed. The novel follows the survivors in the aftermath, tracing how each copes with trauma, rage, and the compromises demanded of them by a hostile society.

The Disappearers is from the Booker Prize-winning author of A Brief History of Seven Killings.

Prose complexity
10/10

Vibe

DarkGrittyEmotionalTenseReflective
Multiple POVsRevengeSurvival

Genres

Literary Fiction Historical Fiction

About the author

M
Marlon James

Marlon James is a Jamaican novelist, born in 1970. His early novels John Crow's Devil and The Book of Night Women were followed by A Brief History of Seven Killings, which circles the 1976 attempted assassination of Bob Marley and its aftermath through more than seventy voices; it won the 2015 Booker Prize, making James the first Jamaican-born author to take the award. He then turned to fantasy with the Dark Star trilogy, beginning with Black Leopard, Red Wolf and continuing in Moon Witch, Spide...

Frequently asked questions

  • Does this book connect to the author's previous work?

    The novel marks a return to the specific Jamaican setting and atmosphere explored in A Brief History of Seven Killings.

  • What is the narrative structure of the book?

    The story incorporates multiple, often frantic voices that provide different perspectives on the central act of violence and its aftermath.

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