The year is 1988: eight men in Kingston, Jamaica begin rehearsals for a play. Each has a different reason for being involved, but they all share one inescapable truth: all of them are gay, and must contend with the dangers that such a truth lays bare. In The Disappearers, Booker Prize-winning author Marlon James (now nominated for the Prize once again in 2026) offers a harrowing, unflinching, deeply human portrait of queer life in 1980s and 1990s Jamaica. James—who grew up in Jamaica and moved to the United States to escape the homophobia he faced—will share his profoundly moving latest work in conversation with Elamin Abdelmahmoud. 

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Event Participants:

Elamin Abdelmahmoud

ELAMIN ABDELMAHMOUD is the host of CBC Radio show Commotion. He was a founding co-host of the CBC Politics podcast Party Lines, and he is a contributor to The National’s At Issue panel. His work has appeared in Buzzfeed News, Rolling Stone, the Globe and Mail, and others.

Marlon James

MARLON JAMES is the Booker Prize–winning and New York Times bestselling author of A Brief History of Seven Killings; the National Book Award finalist Black Leopard, Red Wolf; as well as Moon Witch, Spider King; The Book of Night Women; and John Crow’s Devil. In 2019, Time magazine named him one of the one hundred most influential people in the world. Born in Jamaica, James lives in New York City.