The Disappearers – Marlon James

READ FOR BOOKERTHON

Set in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1988, The Disappearers follows eight gay men rehearsing a play in a society where homosexuality is criminalised. When a violent attack leaves one of them dead, the survivors respond in different ways as they grapple with trauma, fear and the consequences of living in a hostile society. Spanning the 1980s and 1990s, Marlon James explores queer identity, masculinity, violence and the compromises people make to survive in a culture shaped by prejudice and persecution.

This is what Aids is after all, isn’t it? One long set of disappearing acts. First is watching the friends and family disappear. Second act is when people try to disappear you. Third act is watching your body vanish from itself and wondering where the fuck you going, piece by piece, until all of you gone … If there is a fourth act it’s when everybody erase your name as if you were never born in the first place.

SUZY
● The Disappearers is at times overwhelmingly violent, but it also felt like the author was exposing an important truth and therefore the violence was purposeful. The reader gets a sense of the fear felt by a community of people who are deemed to be unlawful merely for existing. And while set in Jamaica, this obviously isn’t just a Jamaican problem. This book was urgent and horrifying, and very rarely hopeful. It feels wrong to say I enjoyed it, but despite it being so brutal it’s a magnificent read.

RACHEL
● The Disappearers is a brutal novel, full of violence, sex, abuse, control and power. I know it’s an important commentary on society, especially life in Jamaica where homosexuality remains illegal, but this book is so merciless it is often hard to read and hard to fathom, not only for the misery but also for the rambling, drawn-out narratives.

There is a large cast of characters and I often struggled to remember who was who. I did read the novel over an entire month with several other books on the go, so maybe if I’d read it all at once I would have connected with it more. But ultimately, I did not particularly enjoy The Disappearers, and I would not recommend it to many people, but I do appreciate its significance and agree it has earned its place on the Booker Prize shortlist.

Published 2026
Riverhead Books
616 pages