A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James is the winner of the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2015!

In A Brief History of Seven Killings, James combines brilliant storytelling with his unrivaled skills of characterization and meticulous eye for detail to forge an enthralling novel of dazzling ambition and scope. Set across three decades, the novel uses the true story of the attempt on the life of reggae star Marley to explore the turbulent world of Jamaican gangs and politics.

Michael Wood, the chair of judges, said the decision to name James the winner was unanimous, and that the work was “extraordinary … very exciting, very violent”. He added that people should not be daunted or put off by the subject matter: “It is not an easy read, it is a big book with some tough stuff and a lot of swearing but it is not a difficult book to approach.”

James is the first Jamaican novelist to win the Man Booker, and A Brief History of Seven Killings is his third book. Receiving the prize, he said a huge part of the novel had been inspired by reggae music: “The reggae singers Bob Marley and Peter Tosh were the first to recognise that the voice coming out our mouths was a legitimate voice for fiction and for poetry.”

The Man Booker Prize for Fiction is a £50,000 prize literary prize awarded each year for the best original novel, written in the English language, and published in the UK. You can read more about the prize here.