A Brief History of Seven Killings

By: Marlon James

Narrated by: Robertson Dean, Cherise Boothe, Dwight Bacquie, Ryan Anderson, Jonathan McClain, Robert Younis, Thom Rivera

Length: 26 hrs

Publisher's summary

Winner of the 2015 Man Booker Prize for Fiction.

On 3 December 1976, just weeks before Bob Marley was to play the Smile Jamaica Concert to ease political tensions, seven gunmen from West Kingston stormed his house.

Marley survived and went on to perform at the free concert. 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.

©2014 Marlon James (P)2014 HighBridge

Critic reviews

"Vast and teeming...a vivid novel that deserves all the praise it has received." ( Sunday Telegraph)

"This seething, hot, violent, action-packed novel is enormous in every sense...the ambition is huge, but [James] pulls it off with huge style, confidence, imagination and wit.... Extraordinary." ( The Times)

"The most original novel I’ve read in years. A haunting, incendiary work." (Irvine Welsh)

This is what Audible is for

A really interesting book made even better by the excellent performance of the cast. It might be my favourite Audible listen.

All over the place

I understand the concept with multiple story lines slowly converging etc and I went in with an open mind, knowingly, but still struggled and got frustrated. It's only when I decided to 'let go' of understanding everything and not mind missing out on chunks of the story here and there that I finally settled into a rhythm and finished it.

Excellent Imagining

I read this title for the simple reason that I try to read each Booker winner. Also, I was intrigued by the plot line; the assassination attempt on Bob Marley ("the Singer") in the 80's. Then there was an ensemble cast of narrators and a wonderfully cryptic title that belied the volume of the text. Too hard to go past. Fortunately with all that hype and the expectations of the Booker Prize hovering over it, the book delivers.
The principals are great characters. Josey Wales, gangland outlaw, sits astride the whole story. His "batty" lingo, like the panoply of Jamaican slang that populates the pages, is infectious. In my mind's eye, he was a hard version of Stringer Bell in "The Wire". Then there is a strong female lead, the chameleon-like Nina Burgess, who changes her identity in trying to escape the attempt, her partial witnessing of it and Josey Wales. And there are others; numerous voices that together reflect on the oral history of the failed attempt and its tragic consequences.
The voices and the historical consequences have been favourably compared to Faulkner and Ellory. High praise, indeed and not without truth in my opinion. So why doesn't it get 5 stars? For me it was just too long. Parts of it meandered and could (in my opinion) have been omitted without damage to the whole. But for that, it would have got my nod.
Then, when it comes to the cast, it is hard to avoid superlatives. They are each excellent. The inspire dread, warmth, concern, waste, violence and vitriol, as required. The live with the ever present and grotesque violence and bring it to life and contrast the dying. Mostly, they make the novel real. I doubt that unless you were born Jamaican you could understand the slang of the streets as produced so vividly by James. Fortunately, you don't need to. Just listen (and keep the diazepam handy).

Exellent

Normally i dislike acting emotion with voice in audiobooks. This is such a great story with outstanding presentation. I simply cant find match to it.

Gripping, captivating story

Narrators were brilliant, raw, haunting story on the effect of power on the people at the bottom...

Absolutely amazing story AND narration

Some of the best reading I have ever heard. The story is brilliant in itself but the narrators bring it to another level. It's was like listening to seasoned actors reading for a play. Never heard any audiobook quite like this one.

Great story telling

Great story. Well knit together. The most interesting thing that stood out for me was how the story revealed itself through conversation and not explicit descriptions. Some very interesting characters although Nina Burgess' neuroticism got a bit testing at one stage.

The accents were mostly great, even when they weren't meant to be.

Main criticism is the number of re-recordings - all at a different pitch which the really drew attention to the method and not the story.

Still, not a terrible way to spend 26 hours.

narration was excellent

The story was very engaging. The narrators really did well displaying the emotion and accents

Can't follow

The writing's too windy for me. Irrelevant subplots spring from every sentence and makes the whole thing hard to follow.

Cannot follow story.

This is probably my own fault for trying to listen to a Man Booker prize winning book (rather than reading it) but I cannot for the life of me follow this story. The performance is full of slang and heavy Jamaican accents. This is appropriate of course but non Jamaicans may struggle! It was sounding like an interesting story so I may try and read it the old fashioned way.