Marlon James is one of those rare authors who can do just about anything. Over the course of his career, the Jamaican novelist has taken readers from a remote village in 1950s Jamaica with John Crow’s Devil to a brutal sugar plantation during slavery in The Book of Night Women to the turbulent world surrounding the attempted assassination of Bob Marley in his Man Booker Prize–winning masterpiece, A Brief History of Seven Killings. He even co-hosts the literary podcast Marlon and Jake Read Dead People, and reinvented epic fantasy with his Dark Star trilogy. In other words: Trying to predict what James will do next is usually a losing game.
His latest novel, The Disappearers, may be his most ambitious yet—and the acclaim has already been extraordinary, with the New York Times recently calling it “the novel of the decade, if not the century.” The sweeping epic follows the lives of eight gay men in Jamaica throughout the 1980s and ’90s, as they navigate love, loss and life in a world that criminalizes their identity. But don’t expect James to put it neatly into one box. “You can look at it as a revenge thriller, which it is,” he tells us. “You can [also] look at it as a story about longing, becoming, family and community, which it is.”
And if our escalator interview is your first time meeting James off the page, prepare to be delighted. For someone responsible for some of the most powerful and complex novels of the past two decades, he’s refreshingly funny, wildly personable and full of unexpected opinions. One minute, he’s discussing literature and craft; the next, he’s talking about comfort reads, comic books and why superhero fans should absolutely know about his current obsession: Absolute Batman.
For this episode of The Reader’s Digest Escalator Interview, Leigh Belz Ray caught up with James at Barnes & Noble Union Square in New York City to talk about The Disappearers, his reading habits, his literary heroes and plenty more. Trust us—you’ll come away with a longer TBR list and an even greater appreciation for one of the most fascinating voices in contemporary fiction.
Watch the exclusive interview with Marlon James below, and then scroll down to shop his books and reading recommendations!
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At Reader’s Digest, we’ve been sharing our favorite books for over 100 years. We’ve worked with bestselling authors including Susan Orlean, Janet Evanovich and Alex Haley, whose Pulitzer Prize–winning Roots grew out of a project funded by and originally published in the magazine. Through Fiction Favorites (formerly Select Editions and Condensed Books), Reader’s Digest has been publishing anthologies of abridged novels for decades. We’ve worked with some of the biggest names in fiction, including James Patterson, Ruth Ware, Kristin Hannah and more. The Reader’s Digest Book Club, helmed by Books Editor Tracey Neithercott, introduces readers to even more of today’s best fiction by upcoming, bestselling and award-winning authors. For this piece, Leigh Belz Ray interviewed author Marlon James. We verify all facts and data, back them with credible sourcing and revisit them over time to ensure they remain accurate and up to date. Read more about our team, our contributors and our editorial policies.
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