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

If I Survive You is a tragicomic debut novel about a Jamaican family adapting to life in the United States. Shortlisted for the 2023 Booker Prize, it follows two brothers as they try to make a place for themselves in a Miami shaped by suspicion, pressure and change.

Trelawny grows up repeatedly confronted with the question, “What are you?”, as those around him respond to his racial ambiguity with confusion. At home, his parents, Topper and Sanya, also struggle to understand him. His older brother, Delano, is determined to secure a better future for his own children, and the brothers’ contrasting approaches begin to drive them apart.

Key details

• Debut novel
• Shortlisted for the 2023 Booker Prize
• Shortlisted for the 2024 Gordon Burn Prize
• Set in Miami and centred on a Jamaican family in the US

Synopsis

In Miami, Trelawny faces constant scrutiny about who he is, while his parents, Topper and Sanya, cannot seem to bridge the distance between them. Delano concentrates on building a better future for his children, and the brothers’ relationship comes under increasing strain.

As they contend with a woefully unreliable father, racism, recession and even a hurricane, the novel asks whether they can withstand these pressures together, or whether one brother’s future must come at the expense of the other.

Rackhams Reference : E93Q3LGKX5