Name: The Disappearers
Price: 50.24 NZD
Availability: InStock
Author: Marlon James
ISBN: 9780241714409

Type

Physical Book

Author

Marlon James

Publisher

Hamish Hamilton Ltd

Year

2026

Pages

512

Format

Hardcover

Dimensions

24.00 x 15.60 cm

ISBN13

9780241714409

The Disappearers

Marlon James (Author) · Hamish Hamilton Ltd · Hardcover

New Book Imported to New Zealand

Delivery: 29 Sep - 05 Oct

NZ$ 50.24

Import costs and 15% GST included in the price ✅

NZ$ 50.24

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Synopsis "The Disappearers"

‘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.

James brings multilayered life to a troubling era in his homeland’s recent history. He engages with his landscapes and the diverse characters populating them with intensity, passion, and bountiful, often graphic detail. With the same affinity for Dickensian storytelling he’s shown in his sword-and sorcery epics, James tells this searingly realistic tale through interview fragments, journal entries, letters, and in recreating the horrific attack, with random, frantic voices that leave unsettling echoes. Even when it stress-tests your senses, this sprawling depiction of gay life in Jamaica is galvanizing. - Kirkus Reviews starred review*

This seething, hot, violent, action-packed novel is enormous in every sense. The ambition is huge, but [James] pulls it off with huge style, confidence, imagination and wit . . . Extraordinary - The Times, 'Praise for A Brief History of Seven Killings'

The way James uses language is amazing . . . Vigorous, intricate and captivating, [it] is hard to put down - Ebony, 'Praise for A Brief History of Seven Killings'

Extraordinary . . . James’s writing can be at once punchy and lyrical; can alternate strange, dreamy poetry with visceral action; and can bring persuasive life to a kaleidoscopic range of characters - Independent, 'Praise for A Brief History of Seven Killings'

A vivid plunge into a crazed, violent and corrupt world . . . executed with swaggering aplomb. The most original novel I’ve read in years - Irvine Welsh, 'Praise for A Brief History of Seven Killings'

Epic in every sense of that word’ - New York Times, 'Praise for A Brief History of Seven Killings'

Marlon James

(Author)

View Author's Page

Marlon James es un escritor jamaiquino, nacido en Kingston en 1970, reconocido como una de las voces más potentes y originales de la literatura contemporánea en lengua inglesa. Estudió Lengua y Literatura Inglesa en la Universidad de las Indias Occidentales y posteriormente obtuvo una maestría en Escritura Creativa en la Universidad Wilkes, en Estados Unidos. Antes de dedicarse por completo a la escritura, trabajó durante varios años como profesor.

Alcanzó reconocimiento internacional con la novela A Brief History of Seven Killings (Breve historia de siete asesinatos), obra con la que ganó el Man Booker Prize en 2015. Esta novela, ambiciosa y polifónica, recrea la violencia política y social de Jamaica en los años setenta, mezclando historia, ficción, múltiples voces narrativas y un lenguaje crudo y experimental. Otras obras destacadas de su narrativa son John Crow’s Devil, The Book of Night Women y la trilogía fantástica Dark Star, que reinterpreta mitologías africanas desde una perspectiva moderna.

La escritura de Marlon James se caracteriza por su intensidad, complejidad estructural y exploración de temas como el poder, la violencia, la identidad, la sexualidad y la herencia colonial. Actualmente reside en Estados Unidos, donde también ejerce como profesor universitario y continúa desarrollando una obra literaria influyente y provocadora.

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