Marlon James – författare

MARLON JAMES'S TRIUMPHANT RETURN TO THE BOOKER PRIZE-WINNING A BRIEF HISTORY OF SEVEN KILLINGS'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.

"Masterfully flips the first installment on its head... James makes the mythic tantalizingly real.'" -Esquire

"Even more brilliant than the first." -Buzzfeed

An Instant New York Times Bestseller and NPR Best Book of 2022 pick

From Marlon James, author of the bestselling National Book Award finalist Black Leopard, Red Wolf, the second book in the Dark Star trilogy.

In Black Leopard, Red Wolf, Sogolon the Moon Witch proved a worthy adversary to Tracker as they clashed across a mythical African landscape in search of a mysterious boy who disappeared. In Moon Witch, Spider King, Sogolon takes center stage and gives her own account of what happened to the boy, and how she plotted and fought, triumphed and failed as she looked for him. It's also the story of a century-long feud-seen through the eyes of a 177-year-old witch-that Sogolon had with the Aesi, chancellor to the king. It is said that Aesi works so closely with the king that together they are like the eight limbs of one spider. Aesi's power is considerable-and deadly. It takes brains and courage to challenge him, which Sogolon does for reasons of her own.

Both a brilliant narrative device-seeing the story told in Black Leopard, Red Wolf from the perspective of an adversary and a woman-as well as a fascinating battle between different versions of empire, Moon Witch, Spider King delves into Sogolon's world as she fights to tell her own story. Part adventure tale, part chronicle of an indomitable woman who bows to no man, it is a fascinating novel that explores power, personality, and the places where they overlap.

In this stunning follow-up to Black Leopard, Red Wolf, Marlon James draws on a rich tradition of African mythology, fantasy and history to imagine an ancient world, a lost child, an extraordinary hunter, and a mystery with many answers... Marlon James weaves a tapestry of breathtaking adventure through a world at once ancient and startlingly modern. And, against this exhilarating backdrop of magic and violence, he explores the fundamentals of truth, the limits of power, the excesses of ambition, and our need to understand them all.