If I Survive You (Hardback)
  • If I Survive You (Hardback)
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If I Survive You (Hardback)

(author)
£14.99
Hardback 272 Pages
Published: 02/02/2023
  • 10+ in stock

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Waterstones Says

A series of linked stories comprising a breathtaking literary debut, Escoffery's searching, humane novel follows the fortunes of a Jamaican family as they face an uncertain future in late 70s America.

Shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2023

A major debut that follows a Jamaican family in Miami navigating recession, racism and Hurricane Andrew.

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 chronicler of life at its most gruesome and hopeful.

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
ISBN: 9780008501211
Number of pages: 272
Weight: 380 g
Dimensions: 222 x 141 x 27 mm


MEDIA REVIEWS

'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

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“An important book!”

Consisted of 8 interconnected short stories, If I Survive You followed a Jamaican family who migrated to the US in the 70s. I love interconnected stories, especially one told from multiple perspectives. So when I... More

Hardback edition
Helpful? Upvote 9

“Connected Short Stories”

Sorry to say this didn't work that well for me. I like the idea behind the book, but I felt it didn't live up to the hype for me.
This is a set of connected short stories that promised wit and humour. I just... More

Hardback edition
Helpful? Upvote 9

“What Are You”

“If I Survive You” is an eight story mosaic depicting a Jamaican family’s struggles to establish their lives once they land in America. The brilliant first story, “In Flux,” hits with a question the characters never... More

Hardback edition
Helpful? Upvote 9

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