Reading guide: A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James
Whether you’re new to A Brief History of Seven Killings or have read it and would like to explore it more deeply, here is our comprehensive guide
In a dazzling display of masterful storytelling, Marlon James explores the extraordinary backstory to the attempted assassination of Bob Marley
Jamaica, 1976. Seven gunmen storm Bob Marley’s house, machine guns blazing. The reggae superstar survives, but the gunmen are never caught. Marlon James investigates the story behind this near-mythical event. The result is a mesmerising, continent-crossing tale that spans three decades, with a shadowy cast of street kids, drug lords, journalists, prostitutes, gunmen and secret service agents.
Marlon James
About the Author
Marlon James is the author of the New York Times bestseller A Brief History of Seven Killings, The Book of Night Women, and John Crow's Devil‘This book is startling in its range of voices and registers… It moves at a terrific pace and will come to be seen as a classic of our times.’
— The Booker Prize 2015 judges on A Brief History of Seven Killings
What the critics said
Emily Raboteau, Bookforum
‘Marlon James’s epic and dizzying third novel, A Brief History of Seven Killings, is anything but brief and describes far more than seven killings […] Based on actual events, [it] delineates strategies of war in a world of men—gang lords, hit men, politicians, and CIA agents, to name just a few.’
Julian Lucas, The New York Review of Books
‘If A Brief History of Seven Killings can be said to have a main idea, it’s that nobody escapes, at least not entirely, from violence. Because violence isn’t an event, but a kind of potential—a force, like gravity, that lurks in every curve of space […] It has less in common with most recent literary fiction than it does with Breaking Bad and The Wire.’
Katharine A. Powers, The Minneapolis Star Tribune
‘Marlon James’ demanding, brilliantly executed third novel is based with extreme artistic license on the 1976 assassination attempt on Bob Marley […] In this novel — and surely in life — the planned assassination of ‘the Singer’ (the Bob Marley of this book) is only one element in the CIA’s effort to unseat the government of Prime Minister Michael Manley […] Put plainly, A Brief History of Seven Killings calls for a stout heart, strong stomach and prodigious powers of concentration, but the reader so equipped will be rewarded with an experience he or she will not soon forget. The novel makes no compromises, but is cruelly and consummately a work of art.’
Tyrone Beason, The Seattle Times
‘Marlon James’ epic novel about what he refers to as ‘post-post-colonial’ Jamaica is so thick with characters and voices that it induces feelings of disorientation similar to traveling to a foreign country for the first time […] Switching narrators at a furious pace, Marlon uses this incendiary backdrop to explore the lives of the colorful street criminals and gang lords who had a hand in the assassination attempt on Marley.’
Rosecrans Baldwin, NPR
‘Be prepared: it is a busy book. Characters include the would-be assassins, various gang bosses, journalists and CIA officers. There’s the ghost of a politician, and an even more ghostly Bob Marley himself […] A Brief History is, with dozens of characters and motives, impressively dizzying. Ultimately, it’s also a beautiful mess.’
I always have a problem ending novels. I think the reason why my books are so long is that I want to spend as much time as I can to get the full story
