How long is it?
704 pages in the Riverhead Books 2015 paperback edition.
Fiction · Novel · Literary Fiction · Historical Fiction
A Brief History of Seven Killings
Highly regardedBooker Prize, 2015Reading facts
✓ Checked- Reading effort
- 78 / 100Very high
- Length
- 704 pagesRiverhead Books · 2015
- Reading time
- 14 hat 50 pages an hour ·
- Pace
- Variable
- Emotional intensity
- 5 / 5
About 14 h · at 30 minutes a day, about 29 days
Estimated from the page count of this edition. Dense books can take longer than the estimate.
About the book
In Kingston in December 1976, rival political parties rely on armed gangs while Bob Marley prepares a concert intended to ease the unrest. An attempt on his life entangles gang boss Papa-Lo, his enforcer Josey Wales, American journalist Alex Pierce and Nina Burgess, a former lover of the singer who wants to leave Jamaica. Their stories extend into the drug networks linking Jamaica and New York, tracing the reach of political violence across fifteen years.
Reader notes
Alternating first-person monologues, many in Jamaican patois, demand concentration as events emerge from sharply different perspectives. Sprawling, darkly comic and frequently brutal, the literary crime novel includes graphic violence, abuse, sex and drug use; Marley himself remains largely outside the narrative.
How it reads
- Writing style
- Dense · Experimental · Stream of consciousness
- Tone
- Bleak · Dark · Irreverent · Tense
- Structure
- Fragmented
- Driven by
- Character · Ideas · Voice
- Point of view
- Multiple viewpoints
- Setting
- Kingston, Jamaica · New York City
Reading complexity
- Writing
- 5 / 5
- Ideas
- 4 / 5
- Structure
- 5 / 5
- Background knowledge
- 2 / 5
About this profile
Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).
- Writing
- How much attention the sentences and language require.
- Ideas
- How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
- Structure
- How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
- Background knowledge
- Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
- Emotional intensity
- Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.
Themes
- Crime and punishment
- Legacy
- Politics and ideology
- Power
- Race and racism
- Trauma
Content notes
- Violence
- Strong
- Sexual content
- Strong
- Swearing
- Strong
- Substance use
- Strong
- Abuse
- Strong
- Self-harm or suicide
- None
Standing and awards
Highly regarded
- Booker Prize, 2015
- American Book Awards (Before Columbus Foundation), 2015
- International Dublin Literary Award shortlist, 2016
- National Book Critics Circle Award finalist, 2014
- Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction longlist, 2015
Questions readers ask
Which edition is shown here?
Riverhead Books · 2015 · paperback. ISBN 9781594633942.
How long does it take to read A Brief History of Seven Killings?
About 14 hours at 50 pages an hour, based on the 704-page Riverhead Books edition. Dense books can take longer.
About the author
Marlon James
Marlon James is a Jamaican novelist whose historical fiction and fantasy examine colonial power, violence, sexuality, belief, and struggles over identity. His lyrical prose combines graphic physical detail with Jamaican Patois and other differentiated dialects, giving social conflict a range of distinct voices. James often resists a single authoritative account: characters compete to define events, testimony remains unstable, and changes in perspective alter what readers can accept as true. Brief History of Seven Killings uses fictional oral history to trace an attempted assassination in 1976 Kingston through decades of political power, criminal allegiance, and public myth. This interest in contested narrative also shapes his African-inspired fantasy. Black Leopard, Red Wolf presents Tracker’s nonlinear and unreliable account of a search for a missing boy, while Moon Witch, Spider King returns to shared events from another perspective. Across these settings, storytelling becomes part of the struggle for political, communal, and personal authority.
If you liked this
Edition and details
- Publisher
- Riverhead Books
- Publication year
- 2015
- Format
- paperback
- Pages
- 704
- ISBN
- 9781594633942
- Edition language
- English
- Original language
- English
- First published
- 2014
- Genres and form
- Fiction · Novel · Literary Fiction · Historical Fiction · Political Fiction · Mystery & Thriller · Politics & Government · Literary fiction · Experimental fiction · Social novel · Espionage thriller
- Editions
- 16
- Languages
- 4 (English, Polish, Russian, Unspecified)