If I Survive You: The Booker Prize shortlisted literary debut

If I Survive You is a tragicomic debut novel about a Jamaican family adjusting to life in the United States. Described as electrifying, hilarious and deeply moving, it follows the pressures and misunderstandings that emerge as they try to build a new home in Miami.

A young Trelawny is repeatedly met with the question, ‘What are you?’, as his racial ambiguity is treated with confusion and suspicion. The uncertainty extends beyond the neighbourhood: his Jamaican parents, Topper and Sanya, do not seem to understand him either. Alongside him is his older brother Delano, stubborn and determined to secure a better future for his own children, whatever it takes.

Key details

• Debut novel
• Tragicomic literary fiction
• Set in Miami
• Follows a Jamaican family in the US
• Booker Prize shortlisted

Synopsis

Growing up in Miami, Trelawny faces suspicion and confusion because of how others perceive him, including those closest to him. As he and Delano move through a landscape shaped by a woefully unreliable father, racism, recession and even a hurricane, the brothers are pushed into conflict.

Their relationship becomes increasingly strained as each tries to find a way forward. The story asks whether they can endure together, or whether one brother’s future must come at the expense of the other.

Rackhams Reference : LFK5YB7AA7