The Disappearers: Shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2026

'This masterpiece is the novel of the decade, if not the century' New York Times

From the Booker Prize-Winning author of A Brief History of Seven Killings, the emotionally charged new novel about violence and prejudice, queerness and Jamaica.

‘Darkness is a mood in Jamaica . . .'

Jamaica, 1988, a place of heat and chaos, and of danger for anyone outside the heteronormal.

So when eight gay men meet for the first time, 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. 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.

Praise for The Disappearers:

'A triumph . . . Mighty, grand and peripatetic' Guardian

‘A writer of complexity, depth and uncompromising vision . . . An exceptional and important novel' Financial Times

‘An epic, virtuosic, propulsive performance, alternately hilarious and viscerally horrifying' Daily Mail

'A masterful work, electrifying and reflective' Observer

'James’s dialogue fountains down the page, as if a tap has been opened. Life pours from him' New Yorker