If I Survive You: The Booker Prize shortlisted literary debut: ‘So damn funny’ – Rumaan Alam

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2023 BOOKER PRIZE ‘Dazzling’ GUARDIAN ‘Blistering’ THE TIMES 'A delight' DIANA EVANS ‘Fiction written at the highest level’ ANN PATCHETT 'Hilarious, revelatory' MARLON JAMES An electrifying, hilarious and deeply moving tragicomic debut novel following a Jamaican family grappling with a new life in the US. ‘What are you?’ This is the puzzled question that greets a young Trelawny growing up in a Miami where his racial ambiguity is regarded with confusion and suspicion. It’s not just his neighbours, his Jamaican parents Topper and Sanya don’t seem to understand him either. Then there’s his stubborn older brother Delano, who is determined to secure a better future for his own children, no matter what it takes. As both brothers navigate the challenges littered in their path – a woefully unreliable father, racism, recession and even a hurricane – they find themselves increasingly at odds. Will they make it through together or must one brother’s future come at the cost of the other? Shortlisted for the 2024 Gordon Burn Prize ‘An astonishingly assured debut novel … clarity, variety and fizzing prose’ BOOKER PRIZE JUDGES ‘So damn funny’ RUMAAN ALAM ‘Astonishing’ I NEWSPAPER 'Utterly unstoppable’ IRISH TIMES What readers say: ‘So good it was hard to put down’ ‘Humour, real feeling … totally recommend’ ‘So engrossing and entertaining’ ‘A must read’ This latest literary work by Jonathan Escoffery is a deep psychological exploration of a family with African heritage, grappling with their new American reality. The narrative is a poignant reflexion of the black experience, steeped in cultural nuances and told with unflinching honesty. For fans of Paul Harding (This Other Eden), Elaine Feeney (How to Build a Boat), Anne Enright (The Wren, The Wren), Chetna Maroo (Western Lane), and Paul Lynch (Grace). HarperCollins 2022 'Escoffery's is a strong, much needed new voice in our literature’ Percival Everett, Booker shortlisted author of The Trees 'A welcome reminder of what fiction can do’ Rumaan Alam, author of Leave the World Behind 'An elegant meditation on belonging from a powerful new writer’ Nikesh Shukla, author of Brown Baby