The Disappearers

In 1988, eight men in Kingston, Jamaica, begin rehearsals for a play. The men are strangers to one another and each has a different reason for being involved. But they all share one inescapable truth: all of them are gay – a ‘batty man’ in Jamaican argot – and all of them must contend with the dangers that such a truth lays bare. One night a mob savagely attacks them, killing one of the men. For the survivors, their recovery is as much emotional as it is physical: as their bodies heal, each man must grapple with the violence, the hatred, and the rage that the attack made plain. Some try to ignore what the attack has unearthed, while others double down on retribution. *The Disappearers* is both a dramatic page-turner and an unflinching exploration of queer life in Jamaica during the 1980s and 1990s.

Prize history

• Booker Prize 2026 Shortlist
• National Book Award for Fiction 2026 Longlist

Reviews

• London Review of Books · 11 Sept 2026

  Like Buying a Bag of Mints

  We are left, a third of the way through The Disappearers, with a feeling of absolute outrage, when outrage is no more than anger in the key of helplessness. Outrage leads nowhere; violence freezes time for the victim; self-hatred paralyses every other emotion. These are all problems for a long…

  Adam Mars-Jones