Marlon James wins the Man Booker prize 2015

Jamaican author Marlon James holds the award after his book ‘A Brief History of Seven Killings’ was named as winner of the 2015 Booker Prize 2015 for Fiction, poses for photographers following the award ceremony at the Guildhall in London, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2015. Marlon James became the first Jamaican winner of the prestigious Booker Prize for fiction Tuesday with a vivid, violent, exuberant and expletive-laden novel based on the 1976 attempted assassination of Bob Marley.(AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

Marlon James has become the first Jamaican writer to win the Man Booker prize, as he receives it for his third novel “A Brief History of Seven Killings”. He was the only Jamaican to be shortlisted in this year’s round, as the shortlist included two authors from the US and another two from the UK, and an author from Nigeria.

“A Brief History of Seven Killings” is a masterfully written novel that explores the attempted assassination of Bob Marley in the late 1970s. It’s a heavy novel with a lot of graphic content, swearing and blood and killings.

“On December 3, 1976, just before the Jamaican general election and two days before Bob Marley was to play the Smile Jamaica Concert, gunmen stormed his house, machine guns blazing. The attack nearly killed the Reggae superstar, his wife, and his manager, and injured several others. Marley would go on to perform at the free concert on December 5, but he left the country the next day, not to return for two years.”

“Deftly spanning decades and continents and peopled with a wide range of characters—assassins, journalists, drug dealers, and even ghosts—A Brief History of Seven Killings is the fictional exploration of that dangerous and unstable time and its bloody aftermath, from the streets and slums of Kingston in the 70s, to the crack wars in 80s New York, to a radically altered Jamaica in the 90s. Brilliantly inventive and stunningly ambitious, this novel is a revealing modern epic that will secure Marlon James’ place among the great literary talents of his generation.”

Michael Wood, chair of the judges, described A Brief History of Seven Killings as the “most exciting” book on the shortlist. The 680-page epic was “full of surprises” as well as being “very violent” and “full of swearing”.

The 44-year-old author was presented with his prize by the Duchess of Cornwall. He admitted it was “so surreal” to win and dedicated the award to his late father who had shaped his “literary sensibilities”. He also confessed that a huge part of the novel had been inspired by reggae music.

Marlon James was born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1970. He graduated from the University of the West Indies with a degree in literature and is the author of The Book of Night Women, which won the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. He currently teaches a creative writing course at Macalester College, Minnesota, USA. The sales for his books are expected to raise incredulously after this win.