Marlon James

The award-winning Jamaican novelist Marlon James on his Booker-shortlisted novel The Disappearers, as he and presenter James Crawford explore its connections to three other books.

The Disappearers starts with eight men in Jamaica in 1988 meeting in private to rehearse a play. The group are attacked by a violent mob, and for the survivors, recovery is as much emotional as it is physical. Through the lives of the men, the novel explores the realities of queer life in Jamaica during the 1980s and 1990s.

For his three influences, Marlon chose Jessica Hagedorn’s Dogeaters (1990), John Rechy’s The Sexual Outlaw (1977), and Roberto Bolaño’s The Savage Detectives (2007).

Producer: Rachael O’Neill Editor: Gillian Wheelan This was a BBC Audio Scotland production.