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A Brief History of Seven Killings

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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, Various
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About this listen

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 Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Scary Thought-Provoking Caribbean

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)
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Multiple characters/narrators, some Jamaican accents were more authentic than others but I got past the iffy ones because the story was so good. My favourite characters were the central characters - Nina Burgess, Jose Wales, BamBam and....I lie, every character, however briefly or leisurely drawn, was brilliant. This is a specifically Jamaican narrative about a particular time in history and the dynamic of a particular group of people. Still, it is an epic story and one with universal themes that will resonate. It is about island life and mentality, about history and the fact that the past cannot be extricated from the present, about politics or politricks, about the conflicting and conflating ambitions of the empowered and disempowered. I am going to miss this world and these characters and hope that someone has sense enough, and money enough, to make a film worthy of the book (without subtitles) Downloaded Kingston Noir, heard Marlon James short story and so impressed subsequently downloaded all Marlon James fiction titles available on Audible. This is a seminal Jamaican novel. Mr James deserves The Booker.

Hope it wins Booker.

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The only reason I'm writing this review is because of the performances. All were so good except the chapters where they insisted on having a white American attempt a Jamaican accent. It was HORIFFIC. Very distracting when his accent switched from Jamaican, Irish, South African, and unidentifiable. Such a shame. Those chapters could have been narrated by multiple people, just one of the other narrators plus him. Because other than the slaughtering of the Jamaican accent he was a solid narrator. At times I had to stop myself laughing out loud in public purely because the accent was so bad.
Apart from that, the narration was brilliant. I loved the use of real Jamaican patois, I've even started to think and talk in patois again.

Epic adult Jamaican thriller

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I’m a tough crowd, I read a lot and it takes a lot for me to love a book. I finished this book last week and I’ve held off from writing a review because I wanted to leave the story to ‘sit’ with me.

Yes, sometimes the authentic Jamaican speech is difficult to understand but it didn’t prohibit my comprehension of the story.

This book is a true epic; stunning, vicious, believable and ruthless. The story will stay with me and this is rare for me but it’s so brilliant and complex that I will definitely listen to it again.

It’s one of the few books that will stay with me for years, I cannot recommend it enough. However, I would say that it’s not one for the faint hearted or those looking for an easy listen, the story is as challenging as it is compelling but me? I’ve always loved a challenge and yes, I loved this book.


Wow.

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This is a great story but it is let down here by too many generic Caribbean accents. Non Jamaicans may not notice but, to anyone who does know, the errors in pronunciation, inflection and intonation were painful to hear. I very nearly gave up listening as a result.

Great Book! Terrible Accents

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Fascinating story and great narration maybe make this a easier to absorb as an audio book than a written one.

Best audio book I've listened to for a long time

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