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From Marlon James, author of the Booker Prize–winning A Brief History of Seven Killings: a propulsive novel about the murder of a gay man... Wednesday, September 16 at 7pm The Disappearers Marlon James in conversation with Darnell L. Moore 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 “battyman” 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 grapples 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. In The Disappearers, Marlon James has written a riveting and deeply human story of men forced to make compromises to survive what the society they live in demands. It is both a dramatic page-turner and an unflinching exploration of queer life in Jamaica during the 1980s and 1990s. Special thanks to our sponsors ALOUD is made possible thanks to support from: Judith and Steve Krantz Foundation, Hearst Foundations, Humanities Endowment Fund, Gregory Peck Literacy Endowment, Ralph M. Parsons Foundation, Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture, Sharon Oxborough Endowed Fund for ALOUD Additional support generously provided by the Los Angeles Public Library and by donors and members of the Library Foundation of Los Angeles.

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