A Brief History of Seven Killings: WINNER OF THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE

(Paperback, Reissue B-format)

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JAMAICA, 1976 Seven gunmen storm Bob Marleys house, machine guns blazing. The reggae superstar survives, but the gunmen are never caught. From the acclaimed author of The Book of Night Women comes a dazzling display of masterful storytelling exploring this near-mythic event. Spanning three decades and crossing continents, A Brief History of Seven Killings chronicles the lives of a host of unforgettable characters slum kids, one-night stands, drug lords, girlfriends, gunmen, journalists, and even the CIA. Gripping and inventive, ambitious and mesmerising, A Brief History of Seven Killings is one of the most remarkable and extraordinary novels of the twenty-first century.

Reviews

'James has triumphed in capturing the tension, the politics, the heat, chaos, beauty and music of Jamaica.' Financial Times

'Vast and vastly ambitious... much to admire... fascinating... the author's imaginative and stylistic range are impressive.' The Sunday Times

Vast and teeming A vivid novel that deserves all the praise it has received.Sunday Telegraph

Breaks new ground A very fluid and superbly controlled work.Spectator

'The ambition is huge, but [James] pulls it off with huge style, confidence, imagination and wit... Extraordinary.' The Times

The hottest name in Caribbean literature right now.GQ, 'Best Books of 2014'

'When reading reviewsofNight Women, James apparently became bored with comparisons to Toni Morrison; and withA Brief History, hes got bored with comparisons to Quentin Tarantino. Butit is hard not to see the strength of that comparison.'Guardian

'Epic in every sense of that word: sweeping, mythic, over-the-top, colossal and dizzyingly complex... A testament to Mr. Jamess vaulting ambition and prodigious talent.'New York Times

'James intoxicating prose is relentless, feverishly up-close inside his characters rattled nerves even as the narrative scope widens into an evocative portrait of the authors native Kingston.'Entertainment Weekly, 'Ten Best Fiction Books of the Decade'

Not only persuasive, but tragic, though in its polyphony and scope its more than that...Comic, surreal, nightmarish, parodic.New York Times Book Review

Author Bio

Marlon Jameswas born in Jamaica. He is the author ofJohn Crows Devil(Oneworld, 2015), a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the Commonwealth Writers Prize, andThe Book of Night Women(Oneworld, 2009), which won the 2010 Dayton Literary Peace Prize, the Minnesota Book Award and was a finalist for the 2010 National Book Critics Circle Award in fiction. His third novel,A Brief History of Seven Killings(Oneworld 2014),won the Man Booker Prize in 2015, the American Book Award, and the Anisfield-Wolf Fiction Prize, and was a finalist for the International Dublin Literary Awardand the National Book Critics Circle Award. His short fiction and non-fiction has appeared inEsquireandGranta. He is currently the Writer-in-Residence and Associate Professor ofEnglish at Macalester College, Minnesota, USA.