A Brief History of Seven Killings

Winner of the 2015 Man Booker Prize

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

One of the Top 10 Books of 2014 - Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

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.

Author: Marlon James
Publisher: Riverhead Books
Published: 10/02/2014
Pages: 704
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 2.20lbs
Size: 9.55h x 6.42w x 1.41d
ISBN: 9781594486005
Audience: Young Adult


Award: Minnesota Book Award - Winner
Award: Man Booker Prize - Winner
Award: National Book Critics Circle Award - Finalist
Award: Midwest Booksellers' Choice Award - Finalist


Review Citation(s):
Library Journal Prepub Alert 05/01/2014 pg. 56
Kirkus Reviews 06/15/2014
Library Journal 07/01/2014 pg. 76
Publishers Weekly 07/14/2014
Entertainment Weekly 10/17/2014 pg. 71
Essence 11/01/2014 pg. 68
Booklist 10/15/2014 pg. 16
New York Times Book Review 10/26/2014 pg. 12
Library Journal 11/01/2014 pg. 102
New York Times Book Review 11/02/2014 pg. 26
Publishers Weekly Best Books 11/03/2014 pg. 27
NY Times Notable Bks of Year 12/07/2014 pg. 26
LJ Top 10 Book 12/01/2014 pg. 27
New Yorker (The) 12/22/2014 pg. 149
Booklist Editors Choice/Adult 01/01/2015 pg. 10
BookPage 10/01/2014
Library Journal 05/01/2014

About the Author
Marlon James was born in Jamaica in 1970. He is the author of the New York Times-bestseller Black Leopard, Red Wolf, which was a finalist for the National Book Award for fiction in 2019. His novel A Brief History of Seven Killings won the 2015 Man Booker Prize. It was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and won the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature for fiction, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for fiction, and the Minnesota Book Award. It was also a New York Times Notable Book. James is also the author of The Book of Night Women, which won the 2010 Dayton Literary Peace Prize and the Minnesota Book Award, and was a finalist for the 2010 National Book Critics Circle Award in fiction and an NAACP Image Award. His first novel, John Crow's Devil, was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for first fiction and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, and was a New York Times Editors' Choice. James divides his time between Minnesota and New York.