''A Brief History of Seven Killings'' is the third novel by Jamaican author Marlon James. It was published in 2014 by

Riverhead Books Riverhead Books is an imprint of Penguin Group (USA) founded in 1994 by Susan Petersen Kennedy. Writers published by Riverhead include Ali Sethi, Marlon James (novelist), Marlon James, Junot Díaz, George Saunders, Khaled Hosseini, Nick Hornby, ...

. The novel spans several decades and explores the attempted assassination of

Bob Marley Robert Nesta Marley (6 February 1945 – 11 May 1981; baptised in 1980 as Berhane Selassie) was a Jamaican singer, musician, and songwriter. Considered one of the pioneers of reggae, his musical career was marked by fusing elements o ...

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

in 1976 and its aftermath, through the crack wars in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in the 1980s and a changed Jamaica in the 1990s.

Synopsis

The novel has five sections, each named after a musical track and covering the events of a single day: *“

Original Rockers ''Original Rockers'' is a reggae album by Augustus Pablo and is a compilation of singles, all recorded between 1972 and 1975. It was originally released in 1979 on Greensleeves Records and was compiled by journalist and photographer Dave Hendley ...

: 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” The first part of the novel is set in

Kingston, Jamaica Kingston is the capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a long sand spit which connects the town of Port Royal and the Norman Manley Inter ...

, in the build-up to the

Smile Jamaica Concert The Smile Jamaica Concert was a reggae concert held on 5 December 1976, at the National Heroes Park in Kingston, Jamaica, aimed at countering political violence. Bob Marley had agreed to perform but two days before the concert he was shot in his ...

held on 5 December 1976, and describes politically motivated violence between gangs associated with the

Jamaica Labour Party The Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) is one of the two major political parties in Jamaica, the other being the People's National Party (PNP). While its name might suggest that it is a social democratic party (as is the case for "Labour" parties in seve ...

(JLP) and the People's National Party (PNP), especially in the West Kingston neighbourhoods of

Tivoli Gardens Tivoli Gardens, also known simply as Tivoli, is an amusement park and pleasure garden in Copenhagen, Denmark. The park opened on 15 August 1843 and is the third-oldest operating amusement park in the world, after Dyrehavsbakken in nearby Klampe ...

and Mathews Lane (renamed in the novel as Copenhagen City and Eight Lanes), including involvement of the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...

in the Jamaican politics of the time. As well as Marley (who is referred to as "the Singer" throughout), other real-life characters depicted or fictionalized in the book include Kingston gangsters Winston "Burry Boy" Blake and George "Feathermop" Spence,

Claude Massop Claude Massop (16 April 1949 – 4 February 1979) was the leader and strongman of the Phoenix Gang, later renamed the Shower Posse, belonging to Tivoli Gardens, Wellington Street, Rema, Denham Town and the surrounding areas of West Kingston, Jam ...

and Lester Lloyd Coke (Jim Brown) of the JLP and Aston Thomson (Buckie Marshall) of the PNP.

Awards

The book was awarded the 2015 Booker Prize. This was the first time that a Jamaican-born author had won the prize. According to the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

: " ooker chair of judges MichaelWood said the judges came to a unanimous decision in less than two hours. He praised the book's 'many voices'—it contains more than 75 characters—which 'went from Jamaican slang to Biblical heights'". *2014 – National Book Critics Circle Award finalist *2015 – Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Fiction *2015 – Minnesota Book Award for Novel & Short Story *2015 – Fiction category of the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature *2015 –

Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a Literary award, literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United King ...

Television

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

has optioned the novel and is planning a television series, although no debut date has been announced.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brief History of Seven Killings 2014 novels Novels by Marlon James Booker Prize-winning works Novels set in Jamaica Cultural depictions of Bob Marley Organized crime novels American Book Award-winning works Riverhead Books books