The Disappearers

In 1988 Kingston, Jamaica, eight men come together to rehearse a play. They are strangers, each with his own reasons for being there, but they share a truth that puts all of them at risk: they are gay—“batty men,” in Jamaican argot—and in a society where that identity can carry a devastating cost, they know they must be careful.

Then, one night, a mob brutally attacks the group, killing one of the men. For those who survive, the road to recovery is both physical and emotional. As their bodies heal, each man is forced to confront the hatred, violence, and rage the attack has exposed. Some try to bury what happened; others turn toward anger and revenge.

Marlon James delivers a gripping and deeply human story about friendship, survival, identity, and the compromises people are forced to make in order to live. Both a propulsive page-turner and an unflinching portrait of queer life in Jamaica during the 1980s and 1990s, it explores what happens when simply being yourself can become an act of courage.