Marlon James Releases The Disappearers, a Novel Drawn from His Closeted Youth in Kingston

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Jamaican Author Marlon James winning author of "A Brief History of Seven Killings" speaks at the ceremony for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2015 at The Guildhall on October 13, 2015 in London, England. WPA Pool /Getty Images) Facebook Twitter Gmail I Like This 0 By Staff Writer, NewsAmericas Now News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Fri. James, 55, grew up gay and closeted in Kingston through the 1970s, 80s and 90s, a period when Jamaica broadly rejected homosexuality.

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• He told the Times he began writing partly to navigate school bullying, eventually studying literature at the University of the West Indies before working years in advertising and design.
• He published his first novel, "John Crow's Devil," in 2005, following it with "The Book of Night Women" in 2009 and his breakout, Booker Prize-winning "A Brief History of Seven Killings," in 2015.
• He also conducted archival research at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York and traveled to London to research a chapter set in the city's secret gay bars of the 1940s.
• James finished the manuscript in December 2025 after working on it for months with his editor at Riverhead, according to the Times.
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Toggle Google Analytics Google Analytics Google Analytics is a powerful tool that tracks and analyzes website traffic for informed marketing decisions. According to the Times, James said the idea for "The Disappearers" came after he had already come out publicly and settled into life in the U.S., giving him the freedom to revisit the Jamaica he'd left behind out of fear. Facebook Twitter Gmail I Like This 0 RELATED ARTICLES MORE FROM AUTHOR US Military Strikes In The Caribbean Pass 231 Killings By The Numbers:

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• He described the novel as confronting "the story I was not allowed to live." To research the book, James interviewed nearly 20 people across Kingston about gay Jamaican life, past and present, telling the...
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Guyana Oil Boom Leaves… Oil-Rich, Electricity-Poor: Jamaican author Marlon James has released what he calls his most personal novel yet, "The Disappearers," a 600-page epic drawing on his own closeted youth in Kingston – and it has already earned him a second Man Booker Prize nomination. James told the New York Times the book was inspired by a rumor he heard in his youth about an attack on a queer safe space that was never officially confirmed, the kind of violence against marginalized people that often goes unspoken out of fear.

Related coverage

• Jamaicanews: Share article Print article Marlon James's 2026 novel, The Disappearers, has already been hailed as the novel of the century by The New York Times, and it is certainly magnificent and explosive in equal...
• Nytimes: With "The Disappearers," the Booker Prize-winning author has written his most personal novel yet.
• Jamaicantimes: Share article Print article Marlon James's 2026 novel, The Disappearers, has already been hailed as the novel of the century by The New York Times, and it is certainly magnificent and explosive in equal...
• Nytimes: Marlon James's story of gay experience and murderous homophobia in Jamaica is a maximalist's banquet — and the Booker Prize winner's finest book yet.