Disappearers (2026)

The Disappearers is Marlon James’s return to the Jamaica of A Brief History of Seven Killings—a place of heat, chaos and danger for anyone outside the heteronormative majority. When eight gay men meet in Kingston in 1988 after answering a casting call for an openly queer play, they are already taking a considerable risk. That risk becomes something far worse when a mob attacks one of their rehearsals. By the end of the night, one man is dead, everyone is injured and two men subsequently disappear. As the survivors heal, each must confront the bigotry and homophobia exposed by the attack. Some try to forget, some embrace their rage and some simply vanish, but all are permanently scarred. As one victim puts it, there is a difference between when something ends and when something stops. The story continues until both the disappearers and the perpetrators have been tracked along hot and cold trails and an ending is reached. Epic and intimate, violent and forgiving, the novel offers an unflinching portrait of the hatred and shame faced by gay men in a society that refuses to accept them, as well as a deeply human story of acceptance and insight. The contents are in English.