A Brief History of Seven Killings Marlon James Riverhead Books | 704 pages

Winner of last year’s Man Booker Prize, A Brief History of Seven Killings is an epic novel with a premise woven around the attempted assassination of legendary reggae artist, Bob Marley. Referred to as “the singer” throughout the novel, Marley plays a partial, shadowy background role, the real story being the history of 1970s and 80s Jamaica. A time of CIA infiltration, drugs, guns and gang violence all propped up against poverty and desperation, the beauty of this novel comes through in the complex characters who are built up over the 700 pages and five distinct parts. While many readers may pause with frustration with the Jamaican patois used by author Marlon James, and the rapid stream of characters, plots and scenes introduced across each chapter, just hang in there, as it’s a cleverly crafted ride. Dialect will slowly become clear, and key plot arcs will subtly be repeated and clarified, making this complex novel rich in its mixture of Jamaican history both real and imagined.

– Chloe Sasson – Shamus Sillar