From the Booker Prize-winning author of A Brief History of Seven Killings, the story of the murder of a gay man in 1980s Jamaica and its far-reaching consequences.
A maximalist’s banquet: It is humane, blood-flecked, disturbing and sustaining ... James has written a masterpiece, the novel of the decade and possibly of the century thus far ... One of the signal reading experiences of my adult life. It sank knives deep into my heart. I’m still in recovery from it.
A harrowing, hilarious, magnificent novel that will stand the test of time ... He invents his own literary language, horny yet tender, punctuated by puns and music and elegant flourishes. He jolts the narrative sideways and backwards, thumping his suspense line like an expert bassist ... His defiant queer epic belongs to us all.
It carries you off like a tidal wave. Churning with passion and ideas, history and wit, graphic sex and graphic violence, the book howls with so much pain and anger ... While this vicious assault is only a tiny part of the book, James makes it indelible. And far from gratuitous. Like such towering modern novelists as Gabriel García Márquez, Toni Morrison, Roberto Bolano and Elena Ferrante, James uses physical violence to explore social violence, the structures of oppression that its victims must fight to survive ... what makes the book unforgettable is the raw energy of James' storytelling, his ability to conjure up all the many textures of lived experience, including hope. He takes readers deep inside his characters and deep into their world, from the local nuances of skin color and class to the way that fear can actually heighten sexual pleasure.
