A brief history of seven killings

Title:

Author:

James, Marlon

ISBN:

9781780746357

Personal Author:

James, Marlon

Edition:

Paperback edition.

Publication Information:

London : Oneworld, 2015.

Physical Description:

xiv, 688 pages ; 20 cm.

Contents:

Original rockers: December 2, 1976 -- Ambush in the night: December 3, 1976 -- Shadow dancin': February 15, 1979 -- White lines / Kids in America: August 14, 1985 -- Sound boy killing: March 22, 1991.

Abstract:

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. 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.

Subject Term:

Assassins -- Fiction.

Genre:

Historical fiction.

Format:

Books

Document ID:

SD_ILS:1517798

Availability:

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Shelf Number	Material Type	Status
Searching... Durban North Library	JAME HIST	English Fiction	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Hillcrest Library	JAME HIST	English Fiction	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Lalucia Library	JAME HIST	English Fiction	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

A SPECIAL EDITION OF THE 2015 BOOKER PRIZE WINNER, WITH A BRAND-NEW FOREWORD AND A Q&A WITH THE AUTHOR

* With a new foreword by Bernardine Evaristo *

'Epic in every sense of the word' New York Times

Jamaica, 1976. Seven gunmen storm Bob Marley's house, machine guns blazing.

The reggae superstar survives, but the gunmen are never caught.

In A Brief History of Seven Killings, Marlon James reimagines the story behind this near-mythical event, chronicling the lives of a host of unforgettable characters from street kids, drug lords and journalists, to prostitutes and secret service agents.

Gripping, inventive and ambitious, it is one of the most mesmerising and influential novels of the twenty-first century.

'Showcases the extraordinary capabilities of a writer whose importance can scarcely be questioned' Independent

Author Notes

Marlon James was born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1970. He studied literature at the University of the West Indies. He worked in advertising for more than a decade, as a copywriter, art director and graphic designer. He took a writing workshop in Kingston, Jamaica, and later enrolled in a writing program at Wilkes University in Pennsylvania. His first novel, John Crow's Devil, was published in 2005. His other novels include The Book of Night Women and A Brief History of Seven Killings, which won the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2015. He teaches at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota.

(Bowker Author Biography)