ON THE NIGHT OF DECEMBER 3rd, 1976, gunmen broke into Bob Marley’s home in Kingston, Jamaica, and opened fire, seriously wounding Marley, his wife, Rita, and his manager. The shooting, which remains unsolved, is a big part of Marley’s legend – he defied his attackers by performing at a massive free concert in Kingston just two days later. Now, the incident has inspired A Brief History of Seven Killings, an excellent new work of historical fiction by Jamaican writer Marlon James.
Part crime thriller, part oral history, part stream-of-consciousness monologue, James’ nearly 700-page tale reconceives the questions, conspiracies and half-truths surrounding the incident. “It’s like writing about Kennedy – there’s no straightup narrative,” says James, a former music critic for the Jamaica Observer. “There are all these rumors and contradictions,…
