A Brief History of Seven Killings (Booker Prize Winner)

By Marlon James

Book Overview

Winner of the Booker Prize

One of the New York Times's 100 Best Books of the 21st Century

One of Entertainment Weekly's Top 10 Books of the Decade

One of The Atlantic's Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years

A "thrilling, ambitious . . . intense" (Los Angeles Times) novel that explores the attempted assassination of Bob Marley in the late 1970s, from the author of Black Leopard, Red Wolf

In A Brief History of Seven Killings, Marlon James combines brilliant storytelling with his unrivaled skills of characterization and meticulous eye for detail to forge an enthralling novel of dazzling ambition and scope.

On December 3, 1976, just before the Jamaican general election and two days before Bob Marley was to play the Smile Jamaica Concert to ease political tensions in Kingston, seven gunmen stormed the singer's house, machine guns blazing. The attack wounded Marley, his wife, and his manager, and injured several others. Little was officially released about the gunmen, but much has been whispered, gossiped and sung about in the streets of West Kingston. Rumors abound regarding the assassins' fates, and there are suspicions that the attack was politically motivated.

A Brief History of Seven Killings delves deep into that dangerous and unstable time in Jamaica's history and beyond. James deftly chronicles the lives of a host of unforgettable characters - gunmen, drug dealers, one-night stands, CIA agents, even ghosts - over the course of thirty years as they roam the streets of 1970s Kingston, dominate the crack houses of 1980s New York, and ultimately reemerge into the radically altered Jamaica of the 1990s. Along the way, they learn that evil does indeed cast long shadows, that justice and retribution are inextricably linked, and that no one can truly escape his fate.

Gripping and inventive, shocking and irresistible, A Brief History of Seven Killings is a mesmerizing modern classic of power, mystery, and insight.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1594633940
• ISBN13: 9781594633942
• Release Date: September 2015
• Publisher: Riverhead Books
• Length: 704 Pages
• Weight: 1.39 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.7" x 5.4" x 8.2"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 12 and higher

Customer Reviews

Well written

I was enthusiastic about reading this book, because the novel takes place during a period of Jamaican history that is spoken of in whispers, among a generation that is dying. I started the opening chapters, the book was well written, but I discontinued reading as the book was full and overflowing with graphic violence and very creative combinations of Jamaican expletives that I have only heard, but never expected to see in print. This book is not for the faint of heart.

Fantastic!!

Fantastic book!!

one of my favorite books

This book was honestly wild from start to finish. My senior year we had to do a book report on a book that won the Man Booker Prize, and I'm so glad I chose this one. The way the author captures the true feelings of the characters is represented so well, and the history of Kingston is spot on. James himself being from Kingston was able to understand the things he put his characters through, despite not having lived through any of the scenarios. It did get a little hard for me to follow at times because of the constant character jumps between each chapter, but regardless, I fell in love with the story, the characters, and the writing style.