Toronto critic Glenn Sumi gave Marlon James’ novel “The Disappearers” five stars in a review posted Oct. 28 on his site, So Sumi.
“It’s a masterpiece,” Sumi wrote.
The 640-page book came out Sept. 1 from Riverhead Books in the U.S., according to Penguin Random House. It’s on the shortlist for the 2026 Booker Prize. James won the Booker in 2015 for “A Brief History of Seven Killings.”
A Kingston Rehearsal of ‘Fortune and Men’s Eyes’ in 1988
The novel opens in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1988. A group of gay men answer an ad to stage Canadian playwright John Herbert’s prison drama “Fortune and Men’s Eyes,” Sumi wrote. Eddy Porteous, a student, narrates the opening section. Havelock Titus directs.
A month into rehearsals, a gang of men attacks them. One of the cast is killed. The press treats the assault like an orgy, and two survivors vanish. The book then follows the men across some 32 years.
It took Sumi about six weeks to get through it. Some passages stopped him cold. “It was too painful to read and I needed a break,” he wrote.
He had gripes. The middle drags in spots, and a subplot about a lavender marriage gets dropped. He still singled out how James handles his cast. “The gay characters aren’t second fiddles or sidekicks,” Sumi wrote.
Marlon James on the Real Attack Behind ‘The Disappearers’
James told NPR’s Juana Summers in September that the attack in the book is based on a real one.
“This attack in the book was based on an incident which I knew in my gut happened. I just couldn’t prove it,” he said, in an interview republished by WLRN. James said he eventually confirmed the attack through someone who received political asylum in Canada.
“I always knew the official record is one thing you don’t trust,” James said.
He talked about his own teen years in Jamaica, too. “I’m also a disappearer, and I was very good at it,” he said. “So between 15 and 17, I’m pretty sure I said maybe nine words total.” He changed his bus schedule to dodge homophobic classmates.
He’d assumed AIDS was “an American thing” until his research turned up story after story at home. He said the church called the disease “God’s final punishment against homosexuals” and that gay clubs “went underground.”
Reviews and a Booker Shortlist
Kirkus Reviews gave the book a “Get It” verdict. “Even when it stress-tests your senses, this sprawling depiction of gay life in Jamaica is galvanizing,” its review said. The New York Times’ Dwight Garner called it a masterpiece in an Aug. 30 review. The Boston Globe ran Hamilton Cain’s review under a headline calling it “a defiant queer epic for us all.”
The novel was longlisted for the National Book Award for fiction but didn’t make the finalists announced Oct. 6, according to the National Book Foundation.
The Booker winner will be named Nov. 9 in London, the prize organizers say.
