Synopsis
A thrilling prize-winning debut from one of Japan's brightest new novelists, for fans of The Vegetarian and Earthlings.
Half-Japanese, half-somewhere-in-Africa-n. Used to work as a model. Apparently might be gay. Rumours abound about massage therapist Jackson. When someone accidentally scans a QR code on his shirt that links to a violent sexual video involving a Black man, no one believes Jackson's claims that the person in the video isn't him.
Investigating himself, Jackson meets three other Black men entangled in the situation and they soon realize that people's inability to differentiate them is something they can turn to their advantage, exacting retribution on those who have wronged them in the past.
With a razor-sharp opening and an explosive finale, this is a page-turning exploration of race, digital culture, belonging, and the hostility of societies that are supposed to protect us. Written with bite but also with surprising tenderness, Jackson Alone asks complex questions about how we see ourselves and how we see others, as well as what it really means to get revenge.
Half-Japanese, half-somewhere-in-Africa-n. Used to work as a model. Apparently might be gay. Rumours abound about massage therapist Jackson. When someone accidentally scans a QR code on his shirt that links to a violent sexual video involving a Black man, no one believes Jackson's claims that the person in the video isn't him.
Investigating himself, Jackson meets three other Black men entangled in the situation and they soon realize that people's inability to differentiate them is something they can turn to their advantage, exacting retribution on those who have wronged them in the past.
With a razor-sharp opening and an explosive finale, this is a page-turning exploration of race, digital culture, belonging, and the hostility of societies that are supposed to protect us. Written with bite but also with surprising tenderness, Jackson Alone asks complex questions about how we see ourselves and how we see others, as well as what it really means to get revenge.
Details
15 January 2026176 pages
9781804442838Imprint: Footnote Press
Reviews
A unique idea, it reminds me of the work of Jordan PeeleAmy Yamada
The harmony that Jackson Alone finds between a pressing social theme and rhythmical narration filled me with a strange excitement I had never before experiencedYoko Ogawa
The rhythm of Jose Ando's Jackson Alone is wonderful, as is the richly forceful premiseHiromi Kawakami
I tip my hat to Jackson Alone. The novel depicts characters belonging to multiple minority groups, a presence only now beginning to be recognized in Japanese society, and does so with a tremendous perceptiveness rooted in the micro level of everyday experience. Its critique holds the power to topple like a row of dominoes the long chain of discrimination stretching through all forms of expressive activity, including literature, each discovery of prejudice exposing another.Keiichiro Hirano