A Brief History of Seven Killings

by Marlon James · 2014

A polyphonic, multi-decade novel built around the 1976 attempted assassination of a reggae superstar known as the Singer in Kingston, Jamaica. Gang leaders, CIA operatives, a Rolling Stone journalist, and ordinary Jamaicans narrate the events and their fallout through the 1991 crack-era New York.

Books mentioned in A Brief History of Seven Killings (12)

• The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X: “Autobiography of Malcolm X I expected, and even I have checked out Eldridge Cleaver.”
• Soul on Ice by Eldridge Cleaver: ““You read Soul On Ice?” / “even I have checked out Eldridge Cleaver””
• Soledad Brother by George Jackson: “How much I can bet that you never read Soledad Brother?”
• How Europe Underdeveloped Africa by Walter Rodney: “…never read Soledad Brother? How Europe Underdeveloped Africa?”
• The Problems of Philosophy by Bertrand Russell: “there the title be: Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy.”
• The Middle Passage by V. S. Naipaul: “The Company suggested I read a book from V. S. Naipaul before coming here, The Middle Passage.”
• Howl by Allen Ginsberg: “yes I read Howl, fucking facety white boy”
• Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift: ““So I take it you’ve read Swift.” “Jamaican schoolers read Gulliver’s Travels by the time they’re twelve.””
• Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky: “Like that man in Crime and Punishment where Dostoyevsky says he was beyond thought”
• The Lorax by Seuss: “Nodding off between two pages of The Lorax.”
• Miami and the Siege of Chicago by Norman Mailer: “In Miami and the Siege of Chicago, Norman Mailer dropped his own bad self into an event”
• The Happy Hooker by Xaviera Hollander: “…so that I can get tips from The Happy Hooker?”