If I Survive You

By: Jonathan Escoffery

Narrated by: Torian Brackett

Length: 8 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's summary

"If I Survive You is 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. There are no limits to where Jonathan Escoffery will go." —Ann Patchett, author of The Dutch House

"Torian Brackett's skillful narration fully embodies the family at the center of this moving audiobook."- AudioFile Magazine (Earphones Award Winner)

"These painful dissonances are rendered in an appropriately fractured and brilliantly energetic narrative style that might have been constructed with reading aloud in mind. Point of view shifts between first, second and third-person voices and stories unfold in Jamaican patois, black American slang and impersonal authority-speak, as narrator Torian Brackett scampers up and down the register, deploying humour and fury in a wonderfully modulated and empathetic performance."- Financial Times

"If I Survive You, the debut of rising star Jonathan Escoffery (Macmillan Audio, 8 hours and 45 minutes), is read by Torian Brackett, whose voice is the ideal instrument for this dazzling collection of linked stories, moving fluidly in and out of Jamaican patois, using first-, second-, and third-person narration to show different angles on brothers Delano and Trelawny, their cousin Cukie, their families, their schoolmates, their employers, and their girlfriends."- Kirkus

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 first 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 their 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—himself reckoning with his failures as a parent and his longing for Jamaica—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 white supremacy. 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.

A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

©2022 Jonathan Escoffery (P)2022 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

2022 Oprah.com Best Books of the Year, Long-listed
2022 New Yorker Best Books of the Year, Long-listed
2022 Minneapolis Star Tribune Holiday Book Recommendations, Long-listed 2022 Los Angeles Times Holiday Books Guide, Long-listed
2022 Time Magazine Best Books of the Year, Long-listed
2023 National Book Critics Circle Award - Nominee, Short-listed
2022 Kansas City Star Top Books of the Year, Long-listed
2022 National Book Awards - Longlist, Long-listed
2022 Kirkus Reviews Best Books of the Year, Long-listed
2023 PEN/Faulkner Award - Nominee, Short-listed
2022 BookPage Best Books of the Year, Long-listed
2022 Library Journal Best Books of the Year, Long-listed
2023 Man Booker Award - Nominee, Long-listed
2022 The Philadelphia Inquirer Best Books of the Year, Books of the Year, Long-listed
2024 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award - Nominee
2022 New York Times Book Review Notable Books of the Year

Not what I expected

Good book but depressing. From a literary perspective I can see why this is long- listed for the 2023 Booker.
But the performance/ narration was great in sone places but fell short with the main protagonist Trelawney. I did not like the whiney and child-like voice of this character. The other “voices” were fantastic.

Great

This is an enlightening story that is well told - the vignettes get to the point and the whole thing will break your heart.

Good Story

This book was recommended to me by a family member. First off good recommendation! I enjoyed the story. Had some laugh out loud moments. I would have preferred the narrator to have been someone who was able to speak the Jamaican dialect. While I understand that our patios has many different nuances, (depending on where in Jamaica you are from) his attempt at speaking our ‘language’ had me cringing the entire story. I would recommend reading the book if you’re Jamaican, so you can actually concentrate on the story and not on the reader.

Great book, easy fast listen

Loved it, very insightful and flew by as an enjoyable listen, I highly recommend it

Welcome to a delightful character

The voicing brought the characters to life in a beautiful way. You certainly are able to join this family with their trials and escapades.

The author brings the reader in with charm and openness; a book that entertains.

Excellent narration, beautiful family story

I really enjoyed this book and the author’s unique voice and tone which (imo) were perfectly captured by the talented narrator. The narrator moved deftly among different characters and accents and pulled it off with great skill. I alternated reading and listening and was drawn in by both forms of the book, which tells a realistic and compelling story of a family paddling the currents of life in America.

Loved this beyond all possible reason

One of the best books in a long long time. Highly recommend. Read it right away.

Jumped from story to story

Weaved stories together that were unrelated about the Jamaican experience in America and Jamaica…very interesting and engaging.

Good except for the ending

This was an interesting book, and the author has plenty to say. The audiobook made it easier to understand, because the narrator gets the dialects and makes them come alive. I felt like the ending was an example of running out of paper, or ink, or time, or something. Some great moments along the way, though.

Not up to par

I am really sad that this book was so disappointing. As a Jamaican I was excited for the storyline and thought it would have some substance. Instead, it's a very disjointed story with fake accents and not so believable people. The end is not tied up and doesn't present as if there might be a book 2.