A brief history of seven killings : a novel / Marlon James.
Record details
- ISBN: 9781594486005 (hardback)
- ISBN: 159448600X (hardback)
- ISBN: 9781594633942 (Riverhead trade paperback)
- ISBN: 1594633940 (Riverhead trade paperback)
- Physical Description: xiv, 688 pages ; 25 cm
- Edition: First Riverhead hardcover edition.
- Publisher: New York : Riverhead Books, a member of Penguin Group (USA), 2014.
Content descriptions
Bibliography, etc. Note: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Formatted Contents Note: | 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. |
Summary, etc.: | "On December 3, 1976, just before the Jamaican general election and two days before Bob Marley was to play the Smile Jamaica Concert to ease political tensions in Kingston, seven unnamed gunmen stormed the singer's house, machine guns blazing. The attack wounded Marley, his wife, and his manager, and injured several others. Little was officially released about the gunmen, but rumors abounded regarding the assassins' fates. A Brief History of Seven Killings is James's fictional exploration of that dangerous and unstable time in Jamaica's history and beyond. Deftly spanning decades and continents and peopled with a wide range of characters--assassins, drug dealers, journalists, and even ghosts--James brings to life the people who walked the streets of 1970s Kingston, who dominated the crack houses of 1980s New York, and who reemerged into a radically altered Jamaica of the 1990s" -- Publisher's description. |
Search for related items by subject
Subject: | Marley, Bob > Assassination attempts > Fiction. Assassins > Fiction. Oral history > Fiction. Reggae musicians > Jamaica > Fiction. Rastafarians > Jamaica > Fiction. Jamaica > History > 1962- > Fiction. New York (N.Y.) > History > 20th century > Fiction. |
Genre: | Historical fiction. |
Available copies
- 30 of 32 copies available at Bibliomation.
Holds
- 0 current holds with 32 total copies.
Other Formats and Editions
Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Status | Due Date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Beekley Community Library - New Hartford | F JAMES M (Text) | 32544072339673 | Adult Fiction | Available | - |
Bethel Public Library | F JAMES (Text) | 34030130252684 | Adult Fiction | Available | - |
Brookfield Library | F/JAMES (Text) | 34029131300062 | Adult Fiction | Available | - |
C.H. Booth Library - Newtown | FIC JAMES (Text) | 34014141728478 | Adult Fiction | Available | - |
David M. Hunt Library - Falls Village | F Jam (Text) | 33180123720048 | Adult Fiction - First Floor | Available | - |
Deep River Public Library | F Jame (Text) | 36039001141189 | Adult Fiction | Available | - |
Douglas Library of Hebron | FIC JAM (Text) | 33400130686770 | Adult Fiction | Available | - |
Edith Wheeler Memorial Library - Monroe | FIC JAMES,M (Text) | 34026129796426 | Adult Fiction | Available | - |
Gunn Memorial Library - Washington | FIC JAM (Text) | 34055132005327 | Adult Fiction | Available | - |
Hall Memorial Library - Ellington | JAMES, MARLON (Text) | 34037133911216 | Adult Fiction | Available | - |
Electronic resources
Publishers Weekly Review
A Brief History of Seven Killings (Booker Prize Winner) : A Novel
Publishers Weekly
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
There are many more than seven killings in James's (Dayton Literary Peace Prize winner for The Book of Night Women) epic chronicle of Jamaica's turbulent past, but the centerpiece is the attempted assassination of Bob Marley on December 3, 1976. Through more than a dozen voices, that event is portrayed as the inevitable climax of a country shaken by gangs, poverty, and corruption. Even as the sweeping narrative continues into 1990s New York, the ripples of Jamaica's violence are still felt by those who survived. James's frenetic, jolting narrative is populated by government agents, ex-girlfriends, prisoners, gang members, journalists, and even ghosts. Memorable characters (and there are several) include John-John K, a hit man who is very good at his job; Papa-Lo, don of the Copenhagen City district of Kingston; and Josey Wales, who begins as Papa-Lo's head enforcer but ends up being a major string-puller in the country's most fateful events. Much of the conflict centers on the political rivalry of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the People's National Party (PNP), which involves everyone from the CIA (which comes off as perennially paranoid about "isms," namely communism) to the lowest Jamaican gang foot soldier. The massive scope enables James to build an incredible, total history: Nina Burgess, who starts the book as a receptionist in Kingston and ends as a student nurse in the Bronx, inhabits four different identities over the course of 15 years. She is undoubtedly one of this year's great characters. Upon finishing, the reader will have completed an indispensable and essential history of Jamaica's troubled years. This novel should be required reading. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Library Journal Review
A Brief History of Seven Killings (Booker Prize Winner) : A Novel
Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
In his novels, Jamaican-born James centers on his homeland while giving larger scope to the African diaspora in caustically beautiful language. John Crow's Devil, featuring two battling MarlonJames Marlon James, Marilynne Robinson, Jane Smiley, Colm TĆĀ³ibĆĀn | Barbaras Fiction Picks, Oct. 2014, Pt. 1preachers, was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction, while The Book of Night Women, about a slave revolt fomented by women, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and won the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. This third novel should be the charm that makes him a household name, partly because of the arresting subject. In a novel that moves from contentious 1970s Kingston, to crack-ridden 1980s New York, then back to a resurgent Jamaica, James offers a fictional investigation of the attempted assassination of reggae star Bob Marley just days before Jamaica's 1976 general election and only 48 hours before he was scheduled to play the Smile Jamaica Concert. You'll meet musicians and journalists, assassins and drug dealers, and even ghosts in what promises to be a wild ride.
BookList Review
A Brief History of Seven Killings (Booker Prize Winner) : A Novel
Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
*Starred Review* This lengthy novel by the acclaimed Jamaican author of The Book of Night Women (2009) is a densely imaginative fictional retelling of the 1976 assassination attempt on reggae superstar Bob Marley (The Singer) and its aftermath. It is far less about music than about Jamaican (and international the CIA is implicitly engaged) politics and its gangs, inextricably linked. The book is, as a result, nasty, complicated, violent, and profane. That it is also beautiful is testimony to author James' immense talent. Despite the lack of suspense (one knows Marley survives, though James handles the ensuing events deftly), James keeps the pages turning. He handles a complex cast of characters with disparate viewpoints and voices (literally) that, although daunting to readers unfamiliar with the country's culture and speech (No star me no know a who that?), will please and delight (and shock) many but should impress all diligent readers. This is a breakthrough novel not only for the author but also for Caribbean and world literature. The Kingston milieu (and its extensions, including New York) is made horrifyingly believable; the patois is rhythmic, slangy, and often quite funny. This is a unique, difficult (the latter portions less so), and very worthwhile reading experience.--Levine, Mark Copyright 2014 Booklist
Kirkus Review
A Brief History of Seven Killings (Booker Prize Winner) : A Novel
Kirkus Reviews
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
An assassination attempt on Bob Marley stokes this sweeping portrait of Jamaica, encompassing a host of gangsters, CIA agents, journalists and businessmen.Marley is never mentioned by name in the third novel by James (The Book of Night Women, 2009, etc.). But the singer is unmistakably him, and the opening chapters, set in late 1976, evoke an attempt on his life sparked by tensions between gangs representing rival political parties. (In reality, as in the novel, the singer was wounded and went into exile in England.) And though we never hear Marley in his own voice, James massive novel makes room for pretty much everybody elses. Most prominent are Papa-Lo and Josey Wales, kingpins of the Copenhagen City gangs; Barry, a cynical CIA agent with orders to stop the march of communism though the red menace is the least of the islands problems; Alex, aRolling Stonereporter assigned to cover Marley who becomes enmeshed with the gangs; and Nina, who had a fling with Marley. As in his previous novels, James is masterful at inhabiting a variety of voices and dialects, and he writes unflinchingly about the violence, drug-fueled and coldblooded, that runs through the islands ghettos. Moreover, he has a ferocious and full character in Nina, who persistently reboots her life across 15 years, eventually moving to New York; her story exemplifies both the instinct to escape violence and the impossibility of shaking it entirely. But the book is undeniably overstuffed, with plenty of acreage given to low-level thugs, CIA-agent banter and Alexs outsider ramblings about Jamaican culture. James fiction thus far is forming a remarkable portrait of Jamaica in the 19th and 20th centuries, but the novels sprawl can be demanding.An ambitious and multivalent, if occasionally patience-testing, book. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
New York Times Review
A Brief History of Seven Killings (Booker Prize Winner) : A Novel
New York Times
October 4, 2015
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company
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