On 3 December 1976, just weeks before the general election and two days before Bob Marley was to play the Smile Jamaica Concert to ease political tensions, seven gunmen from West Kingston stormed his house with machine guns blazing. Marley survived and went on to perform at the free concert, but the next day he left the country, and didn’t return for two years. Not a lot was recorded about the fate of the seven gunmen, but much has been said, whispered and sung about in the streets of West Kingston, with information surfacing at odd times, only to sink into rumour and misinformation. Inspired by this near-mythic event, A Brief History of Seven Killings takes the form of an imagined oral biography, told by ghosts, witnesses, killers, members of parliament, drug dealers, conmen, beauty queens, FBI and CIA agents, reporters, journalists, and even Keith Richards' drug dealer. Marlon James’s bold undertaking traverses strange landscapes and shady characters, as motivations are examined – and questions asked – in this compelling novel of monumental scope and ambition.
On 3 December 1976, just weeks before the general election and two days before Bob Marley was to play the Smile Jamaica Concert to ease political tensions, seven gunmen from West Kingston stormed his house with machine guns blazing. Marley survived and went on to perform at the free concert, but the next day he left the country, and didn’t return for two years. Not a lot was recorded about the fate of the seven gunmen, but much has been said, whispered and sung about in the streets of West Kingston, with information surfacing at odd times, only to sink into rumour and misinformation. Inspired by this near-mythic event, A Brief History of Seven Killings takes the form of an imagined oral biography, told by ghosts, witnesses, killers, members of parliament, drug dealers, conmen, beauty queens, FBI and CIA agents, reporters, journalists, and even Keith Richards' drug dealer. Marlon James’s bold undertaking traverses strange landscapes and shady characters, as motivations are examined – and questions asked – in this compelling novel of monumental scope and ambition.
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2 books in catalog
Spanning historical fiction, epic fantasy, and contemporary drama, Jamaican narrative literature reached a milestone when the 2015 Man Booker Prize went to a sprawling, multi-voiced novel centered around the 1976 assassination attempt on Bob Marley. Marlon James became the first Jamaican author to receive the prestigious award for A Brief History of Seven Killings, establishing an expansive body of work that blends rigorous historical exploration with complex oral storytelling techniques.
From haunting historical narratives set during Caribbean slavery to African mythological fantasy sagas like Black Leopard, Red Wolf, his fiction frequently investigates power, violence, and marginalized identities through intricate multi-perspective structures.
Born in Kingston, Jamaica, on November 24, 1970, James grew up in a household where his mother worked as a police detective, an environment that early on exposed him to complex investigative narratives and police reporting. He published his debut novel, John Crow's Devil, in 2005, gaining recognition as a finalist for both the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the Commonwealth Writers Prize. He followed this with his 2009 historical novel The Book of Night Women, which depicts a women's slave revolt on a Jamaican sugar plantation. The novel won the 2010 Dayton Literary Peace Prize and the Minnesota Book Award while placing as a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the NAACP Image Award.
Following the international success of A Brief History of Seven Killings, James expanded into epic fantasy with the Dark Star trilogy, drawing heavily on African mythology and folklore. Beyond prose fiction, he wrote the television limited series Get Millie Black. James currently resides in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and has taught literature and creative writing as a faculty member at Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota, in addition to lecturing in the low-residency MFA program at St. Francis College.
James's writing is characterized by polyphonic narrative structures, authentic dialect variations, and an unsparing examination of systemic violence, sexuality, and power dynamics. His prose frequently incorporates multiple distinct narrative voices to present contested histories from contrasting perspectives, avoiding singular authoritative interpretations. Drawing influence from post-colonial literature, comic book lore, and regional folklore, his work bridges historical realism and mythic world-building while maintaining a steady focus on political conflict, human resilience, and community trauma.
2 books in catalog
Spanning historical fiction, epic fantasy, and contemporary drama, Jamaican narrative literature reached a milestone when the 2015 Man Booker Prize went to a sprawling, multi-voiced novel centered around the 1976 assassination attempt on Bob Marley. Marlon James became the first Jamaican author to receive the prestigious award for A Brief History of Seven Killings, establishing an expansive body of work that blends rigorous historical exploration with complex oral storytelling techniques.
From haunting historical narratives set during Caribbean slavery to African mythological fantasy sagas like Black Leopard, Red Wolf, his fiction frequently investigates power, violence, and marginalized identities through intricate multi-perspective structures.
Born in Kingston, Jamaica, on November 24, 1970, James grew up in a household where his mother worked as a police detective, an environment that early on exposed him to complex investigative narratives and police reporting. He published his debut novel, John Crow's Devil, in 2005, gaining recognition as a finalist for both the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the Commonwealth Writers Prize. He followed this with his 2009 historical novel The Book of Night Women, which depicts a women's slave revolt on a Jamaican sugar plantation. The novel won the 2010 Dayton Literary Peace Prize and the Minnesota Book Award while placing as a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the NAACP Image Award.
Following the international success of A Brief History of Seven Killings, James expanded into epic fantasy with the Dark Star trilogy, drawing heavily on African mythology and folklore. Beyond prose fiction, he wrote the television limited series Get Millie Black. James currently resides in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and has taught literature and creative writing as a faculty member at Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota, in addition to lecturing in the low-residency MFA program at St. Francis College.
James's writing is characterized by polyphonic narrative structures, authentic dialect variations, and an unsparing examination of systemic violence, sexuality, and power dynamics. His prose frequently incorporates multiple distinct narrative voices to present contested histories from contrasting perspectives, avoiding singular authoritative interpretations. Drawing influence from post-colonial literature, comic book lore, and regional folklore, his work bridges historical realism and mythic world-building while maintaining a steady focus on political conflict, human resilience, and community trauma.
