A Brief History of Seven Killings

Marlon James's many-voiced novel turns on the 1976 attempt on the life of the reggae singer Bob Marley, the Singer, two days before a peace concert, and the political gang warfare of Kingston that lies behind it. The real city is its ground: the Singer's house on Hope Road where the gunmen strike, the ghetto garrisons of West Kingston tied to the rival parties, and the concert in the park; the story later follows the dons and their trade north to New York.

Bam-Bam

Hope Road (the Singer's house)

December 3, 1976

A carful of young gunmen, among them the doomed Bam-Bam, shoot up the Singer's house on Hope Road two nights before a peace concert, wounding him and others. James spins the whole novel out from this real, half-explained attack, using its many possible tellers to anatomise a whole society's violence.

December 3, 1976

explicit The central event is the gun attack on the Singer at his house on Hope Road, drawn from the real 1976 attempt on Bob Marley's life at 56 Hope Road in Kingston, now the Bob Marley Museum.

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