Marlon James on His New Novel 'The Disappearers', Queer Jamaican Underground, and Facing His Nightmares

In an interview with CULTURED, Marlon James discusses his upcoming novel 'The Disappearers', set to be released on September 1. The book, his first work of realism since his 2015 Booker Prize-winning 'A Brief History of Seven Killings', follows eight gay men in 1988 Kingston, Jamaica, who are staging John Herbert's 1967 prison drama 'Fortune and Men's Eyes' when they are attacked in an act of homophobic brutality. The novel, told in five parts, explores the aftermath of this violence through characters like Jordan Brown, a young hustler, and Streggeh Don, a reggae artist. James, who spent decades in the closet and once requested an exorcism, describes the book as a 'FOMO book'—a way to imagine the lives of those who couldn't leave Jamaica. He discusses the role of pop culture, music, and code-switching in the novel, as well as his influences, including Jean Genet and E.M. Forster. James also touches on his work on the HBO series 'Get Millie Black', his upcoming documentary about returning to Jamaica, and his views on violence in literature, referencing his introduction to Cormac McCarthy's 'Blood Meridian'.