About the Author

MARLON JAMES was born in Jamaica. He is the author of the Man Booker Prize-winning novel, A Brief History of Seven Killings (Oneworld 2014), which also won the American Book Award and the Anisfield-Wolf Fiction Prize, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and featured in over twenty best books of the year lists. His debut novel, John Crow’s Devil (Oneworld, 2015), was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, and was a New York Times Editors’ Choice, and his second novel, The Book of Night Women (Oneworld, 2009), won the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and the Minnesota Book Award, and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. He teaches at Macalester College, Minnesota, USA.

Reviews

'James has triumphed in capturing the tension, the politics, the heat, chaos, beauty and music of Jamaica.' Financial Times

'Vast and vastly ambitious... much to admire... fascinating... the author's imaginative and stylistic range are impressive.' The Sunday Times

‘Vast and teeming … A vivid novel that deserves all the praise it has received.’ Sunday Telegraph

‘Breaks new ground… A very fluid and superbly controlled work.’ Spectator

'The ambition is huge, but [James] pulls it off with huge style, confidence, imagination and wit... Extraordinary.' The Times

‘The hottest name in Caribbean literature right now.’ GQ, 'Best Books of 2014'

'When reading reviews of Night Women, James apparently became bored with comparisons to Toni Morrison; and with A Brief History, he’s got bored with comparisons to Quentin Tarantino. But it is hard not to see the strength of that comparison.' Guardian

'Epic in every sense of that word: sweeping, mythic, over-the-top, colossal and dizzyingly complex... A testament to Mr. James’s vaulting ambition and prodigious talent.' New York Times

'James’ intoxicating prose is relentless, feverishly up-close inside his characters’ rattled nerves even as the narrative scope widens into an evocative portrait of the author’s native Kingston.' Entertainment Weekly, 'Ten Best Fiction Books of the Decade'

‘Not only persuasive, but tragic, though in its polyphony and scope it’s more than that... Comic, surreal, nightmarish, parodic.’ New York Times Book Review