Book club questions

The Disappearers Book Club Questions & Discussion Guide

By Marlon James · ~608 pages · 2026 · Literary fiction

In late-1980s Jamaica, the murder of a gay actor rehearsing a play sets off tragic consequences, in a sweeping novel from the author of A Brief History of Seven Killings.

Booker Prize 2026 shortlist

About this book

Returning to the late-twentieth-century Jamaica of his Booker-winning A Brief History of Seven Killings, Marlon James centers his new novel on the murder of a gay man, an actor rehearsing for a play, and the tragic consequences that follow. Sweeping and unflinching, it moves into territory Caribbean fiction has rarely explored, rendered with the intimacy of a writer who knows the place and its contradictions from the inside. It is an ambitious, sometimes brutal, deeply human novel about desire, violence, and the price of secrecy.

Discussion questions

  1. The novel returns to the Jamaica of the late 1980s and turns on the murder of a gay actor. What was your first impression of that world, and of the story's opening?
  2. This is a long, ambitious book with a large canvas. If its length or scope felt daunting, whose story or which thread pulled you back in?
  3. The book moves among many lives touched by one death. Whose perspective affected you most, and how did seeing events through different eyes change your understanding?
  4. James writes about desire and secrecy in a place and time hostile to both. Where did you land on the choices his characters make to survive, or to hide?
  5. The novel enters territory Caribbean fiction has rarely explored. What did it ultimately say about homophobia, violence, and the cost of a life lived in secret?
  6. James renders Jamaica with the full complexity and love of an insider, in voices and rhythms all its own. How did that texture and language shape your reading?
  7. Late-1980s Jamaica, its theater world and its dangers, is vividly present. How did the time and place make the story's tragedy feel inevitable, or not?
  8. Did this remind you of another story about a community reckoning with a death, or about desire under threat, in fiction or in life?
  9. The book insists on the humanity of people a society tried to erase. Without going anywhere you would rather not, did that resonate for anyone at the table?
  10. Who would you hand this to next, the literary reader ready for an ambitious, unflinching novel or an admirer of the author's earlier work, and who should approach it with care?

Themes to listen for

  • Homophobia, violence, and secrecy
  • Desire under threat
  • A community reckoning with a death
  • The humanity of the erased
  • Jamaica and its contradictions

If your club liked this, try…

  • A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James
  • Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin
  • The Prophets by Robert Jones Jr.
  • Augustown by Kei Miller

Where to get it

Practical notes

Best for literary clubs ready for an ambitious, unflinching novel. This is a long book, so allow extra time.

Content notes: Homophobia, violence, and murder; flag the content to your group and approach with care.