Overview

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’

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9780008501242

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Reviews

‘An astonishing, compassionate entrance to the literary scene' i Newspaper ‘All of life is here in unflinching detail: the fragility of existence, the American dream and the road not taken’ The Booker Prize Judges ‘A commanding debut from a talent to watch’ Observer ‘Brilliantly energetic… his talent feels fully formed and raring to go’ Financial Times ‘Unmissable… rare in that it has the heft and heart of a novel, with the refined finesse of the short story’ Irish Times ‘Jaunty, irrepressible and full of energy… A fine achievement’ Suzy Feay, Financial Times Weekend ‘Surges with the symphonic, imaginative, propulsive energy of Gabriel García Márquez’ Guardian ‘Fiction written at the highest level…There are no limits to where he will go’ Ann Patchett, author of The Dutch House ‘Superb… a beautiful economy in the telling that never sacrifices the depth, complexity and richness of the worlds these characters inhabit’ Percival Everett, author of Erasure 'This I adore… Sumptuous and astute, excellent on the humiliations of familial and societal experience' Diana Evans, author of Ordinary People ‘An elegant meditation on belonging from a powerful new writer’ Nikesh Shukla, author of Brown Baby ‘A dazzling mirror held up to our identity-obsessed time’ Joyce Carol Oates, author of Blonde ‘A gifted, sure-footed storyteller’ New York Times ‘Like nothing you've read before’ Marlon James, author of A Brief History of Seven Killings ‘A welcome reminder of what fiction can do’ Rumaan Alam, author of Leave the World Behind

'Its riches are plentiful - Escoffery's prose regularly stopped me in my tracks ... [an] astonishing, compassionate entrance to the literary scene' i Newspaper 'A ravishing debut ... The book feels thrillingly free' New Yorker 'A gifted, sure-footed storyteller ... a disarming, irreverent sense of humor ... makes me eager to read him for a long time to come' New York Times 'Exposes uncomfortable social truths with fine details, wit and dazzling verbal versatility' Los Angeles Times 'I highly recommend this debut-astonishingly compact and engaging fiction, and a dazzling mirror held up to our identity-obsessed time' Joyce Carol Oates, author of Blonde 'It's rare for a story collection to break out of the gate with as much buzz as Escoffery's debut ... the author exposes uncomfortable social truths with fine details, wit and dazzling verbal versatility' Los Angeles Times 'Kaleidoscopic, urgent, hilarious, revelatory and like nothing you've read before' Marlon James, author of A Brief History of Seven Killings 'This I adore ... Sumptuous and astute, excellent on the humiliations of familial and societal experience, triumphant in its spirited retaliation. An absolute delight' Diana Evans, author of Ordinary People 'Connected short stories that reads like a novel, that reads like real life, that reads like fiction written at the highest level' Ann Patchett, author of The Dutch House 'An electrifying, enthralling debut about identity and belonging ... Spectacular' Nicole Dennis-Benn, author of Here Comes the Sun 'A welcome reminder of what fiction can do' Rumaan Alam, author of Leave the World Behind 'Brilliant wit, real heart and electric humour' Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, author of Friday Black 'Superb stories about identity, family and place ... A much needed new voice' Percival Everett author of Erasure

'Its riches are plentiful – Escoffery’s prose regularly stopped me in my tracks … [an] astonishing, compassionate entrance to the literary scene' i Newspaper 'A ravishing début … The book feels thrillingly free' New Yorker ‘A gifted, sure-footed storyteller … a disarming, irreverent sense of humor … makes me eager to read him for a long time to come’ New York Times ‘Exposes uncomfortable social truths with fine details, wit and dazzling verbal versatility’ Los Angeles Times ‘I highly recommend this debut—astonishingly compact and engaging fiction, and a dazzling mirror held up to our identity-obsessed time’ Joyce Carol Oates, author of Blonde ‘It’s rare for a story collection to break out of the gate with as much buzz as Escoffery’s debut … the author exposes uncomfortable social truths with fine details, wit and dazzling verbal versatility’ Los Angeles Times ‘Kaleidoscopic, urgent, hilarious, revelatory and like nothing you've read before’ Marlon James, author of A Brief History of Seven Killings 'This I adore … Sumptuous and astute, excellent on the humiliations of familial and societal experience, triumphant in its spirited retaliation. An absolute delight' Diana Evans, author of Ordinary People 'Connected short stories that reads like a novel, that reads like real life, that reads like fiction written at the highest level' Ann Patchett, author of The Dutch House ‘An electrifying, enthralling debut about identity and belonging … Spectacular’ Nicole Dennis-Benn, author of Here Comes the Sun ‘A welcome reminder of what fiction can do’ Rumaan Alam, author of Leave the World Behind ‘Brilliant wit, real heart and electric humour’ Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, author of Friday Black ‘Superb stories about identity, family and place … A much needed new voice’ Percival Everett author of Erasure

'Its riches are plentiful - Escoffery's prose regularly stopped me in my tracks ... Escoffery writes masterfully ... [an] astonishing, compassionate entrance to the literary scene' i Newspaper 'A ravishing debut ... which stomps on the delicate vessel of the trauma plot ... Escoffery's fiction is marked by ingenuity ... The book feels thrillingly free' New Yorker 'A gifted, sure-footed storyteller, with a command of evocative language ... a disarming, irreverent sense of humor ... makes me eager to read him for a long time to come' New York Times 'It's rare for a story collection to break out of the gate with as much buzz as Escoffery's debut ... the author exposes uncomfortable social truths with fine details, wit and dazzling verbal versatility' Los Angeles Times 'Kaleidoscopic, urgent, hilarious, revelatory and like nothing you've read before' Marlon James, author of A Brief History of Seven Killings 'This I adore. Escoffery's collection of linked stories is sumptuous and astute, excellent on the humiliations of familial and societal experience, triumphant in its spirited retaliation. An absolute delight' Diana Evans, author of Ordinary People 'Connected short stories that reads like a novel, that reads like real life, that reads like fiction written at the highest level ... A compelling hurricane of a book' Ann Patchett, author of The Dutch House 'An electrifying, enthralling debut about identity and belonging ... Spectacular' Nicole Dennis-Benn, author of Here Comes the Sun 'A welcome reminder of what fiction can do' Rumaan Alam, author of Leave the World Behind 'Brilliant wit, real heart and electric humour ... a talent not to be ignored' Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, author of Friday Black 'These are superb stories about identity, family and place ... A strong, much needed new voice' Percival Everett author of Erasure

Author Information

Jonathan Escoffery is the recipient of the 2020 Plimpton Prize for Fiction, a 2020 National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship and the 2020 ASME Award for Fiction. His fiction has appeared in The Paris Review, American Short Fiction, Electric Literature and elsewhere. He is a PhD fellow at the University of Southern California and in 2021 was awarded a Wallace Stegner Fellowship in the Creative Writing Program at Stanford University. If I Survive You is his first book and was longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2023 and the National Book Award for Fiction in 2022.

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