If I Survive You (Hardback)

Jonathan Escoffery (author)

£14.99

Hardback 272 Pages / Published: 02/02/2023

Coming soon

Awaiting publication

Synopsis

'Kaleidoscopic, urgent, hilarious, revelatory' Marlon James, author of A Brief History of Seven Killings 'A compelling hurricane of a book' Ann Patchett, author of The Dutch House '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 A major debut, blazing with style and heart, that follows a Jamaican family in Miami navigating recession, racism and Hurricane Andrew.

You want a home.
You want to win back your girlfriend's admiration.
You want to prove that your father bet on the wrong son.

1979. Topper and Sanya flee to Miami as political violence consumes their native Kingston. But they soon learn that the welcome in America will be far from warm.

Trelawny, their youngest son, comes of age in a society which regards him with suspicion and confusion, greeting him with the puzzled question 'What are you?'

Their eldest son Delano's longing for a better future for his own children is equalled only by his recklessness in trying to secure it.

As both brothers navigate the obstacles littered in their path - an unreliable father, racism, a financial crisis and Hurricane Andrew - they find themselves pitted against one another. Will their rivalry be the thing that finally tears their family apart?

The thrilling linked stories in Jonathan Escoffery's If I Survive You pulse with inimitable style, heart and barbed humour while unravelling what it means to carve out an existence between cultures, homes and pay checks. They announce Escoffery as a once in a generation talent and chronicler of life at its most gruesome and hopeful.

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
ISBN: 9780008501211
Number of pages: 272
Weight: 270 g
Dimensions: 222 x 141 x 20 mm

MEDIA REVIEWS

'Kaleidoscopic, urgent, hilarious, revelatory and like nothing you've read before. These are the stories that we never believed could be told, until Jonathan Escoffery told them' Marlon James, author of A Brief History of Seven Killings

'A collection of connected short stories that reads like a novel, that reads like real life, that reads like fiction written at the highest level. This is a compelling hurricane of a book that sweeps the past, present and future together into one inextricable knot. This is where Jonathan Escoffrey's career begins. There are no limits to where he will go' Ann Patchett, author of The Dutch House

'An electrifying, enthralling debut about identity and belonging. Jonathan Escoffery illuminates both beauty and trauma and the ways in which so many of us Jamaicans are still looking for home within ourselves. Told with humor and clear-eyed grace, this spectacular collection introduces us to an amazing new voice' Nicole Dennis-Benn, author of Here Comes the Sun

'It's truly a feat that a book of short stories tackling such big stuff-family, love, violence, race-could be so damn funny. Jonathan Escoffery is a writer only just getting started, and his first book is a welcome reminder of what fiction can do' Rumaan Alam, author of Leave the World Behind

'If I Survive You is a collection of brilliant wit, real heart and electric humour. Jonathan Escoffery masterfully mines from his life and emerges, in this debut, as a talent not to be ignored.' Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, author of Friday Black

'These are superb stories about identity, family and place. Escoffery's is a strong, much needed new voice in our literature' Percival Everett author of Erasure