Finalist for the 2023 Booker Prize. Longlisted for the 2022 National Book Award for Fiction.

A major debut, blazing with style and heart, that follows a Jamaican family striving for more in Miami, and introduces a generational storyteller.

In the 1970s, Topper and Sanya flee to Miami as political violence consumes their native Kingston. But America, as the couple and their two children learn, is far from the promised land. Excluded from society as Black immigrants, the family pushes on through Hurricane Andrew and later the 2008 recession, living in a house so cursed that the pet fish launches itself out of its own tank rather than stay. But even as things fall apart, the family remains motivated, often to its own detriment, by what the younger son, Trelawny, calls “the exquisite, racking compulsion to survive.”

Masterfully constructed with heart and humor, the linked stories in Jonathan Escoffery’s If I Survive You center on Trelawny as he struggles to carve out a place for himself amid financial disaster, racism, and flat-out bad luck. After a fight with Topper, Trelawny claws his way out of homelessness through a series of odd, often hilarious jobs. Meanwhile, his brother, Delano, attempts a disastrous cash grab to get his kids back, and his cousin Cukie looks for a father who doesn’t want to be found. As each character searches for a foothold, they never forget the profound danger of climbing without a safety net.

Pulsing with vibrant lyricism and inimitable style, sly commentary and contagious laughter, Escoffery’s debut unravels what it means to be in between homes and cultures in a world at the mercy of capitalism and whiteness. With If I Survive You, Escoffery announces himself as a prodigious storyteller in a class of his own, a chronicler of American life at its most gruesome and hopeful.

'Kaleidoscopic, urgent, hilarious, revelatory' Marlon James, author of A Brief History of Seven Killings 'Sumptuous and astute ... An absolute delight to read' Diana Evans, author of Ordinary People 'A compelling hurricane of a book' Ann Patchett, author of The Dutch House LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION 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. 'Escoffery's is a strong, much needed new voice in our literature' Percival Everett, Booker shortlisted author of The Trees '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

'Kaleidoscopic, urgent, hilarious, revelatory' Marlon James, author of A Brief History of Seven Killings 'Sumptuous and astute ... An absolute delight to read' Diana Evans, author of Ordinary People 'A compelling hurricane of a book' Ann Patchett, author of The Dutch House LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION 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. 'Escoffery's is a strong, much needed new voice in our literature' Percival Everett, Booker shortlisted author of The Trees '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