Photograph: Neil Hall/Reuters
Marlon James became the first Jamaican author to win Man Booker Prize. His novel “A Brief History of Seven Killings” won this year’s honour along with £50,000 prize money.
Calling the book “extraordinary” which was inspired by the attempted murder of Bob Marley in 1976, Michael Wood, the chair of judges said, “[It was] very exciting, very violent, full of swearing. It was a book we didn’t actually have any difficulty deciding on – it was a unanimous decision, a little bit to our surprise.”
“One of the pleasures of reading it is that you turn the page and you’re not quite sure who the next narrator will be,” Wood added.
The 680-page fictional novel was “full of surprises” and also “very violent”.
“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 poetry,” the 44-year-old author said after receiving the award.
“I just met Ben Okri [who won for The Famished Road in 1991] and it just reminded me of how much of my literary sensibilities were shaped by the Man Booker prize … it suddenly increases your library by 13 books,” he added.
The Man Booker 2015 shortlist:-
Marlon James (Jamaica), A Brief History of Seven Killings
Tom McCarthy (UK), Satin Island
Chigozie Obioma (Nigeria), The Fishermen
Sunjeev Sahota (UK), The Year of the Runaways
Anne Tyler (US), A Spool of Blue Thread
Hanya Yanagihara (US), A Little Life
