A Brief History of Seven Killings

'James has triumphed in capturing the tension, the politics, the heat, chaos, beauty and music of Jamaica.' Financial Times

'Vast and vastly ambitious... much to admire... fascinating... the author's imaginative and stylistic range are impressive.' The Sunday Times

'“Brief”? For a work spanning nearly 700 pages, that word is, at best, a winky misdirection. To skip even a paragraph, though, would be to forgo the vertiginous pleasures of James’s semi-historical novel.' New York Times, '100 Best Books of the 21st Century'

‘Vast and teeming … A vivid novel that deserves all the praise it has received.’ Sunday Telegraph

‘Breaks new ground… A very fluid and superbly controlled work.’ Spectator

'The ambition is huge, but [James] pulls it off with huge style, confidence, imagination and wit... Extraordinary.' The Times

‘The hottest name in Caribbean literature right now.’ GQ, 'Best Books of 2014'

'When reading reviews of Night Women, James apparently became bored with comparisons to Toni Morrison; and with A Brief History, he’s got bored with comparisons to Quentin Tarantino. But it is hard not to see the strength of that comparison.' Guardian

'Epic in every sense of that word: sweeping, mythic, over-the-top, colossal and dizzyingly complex... A testament to Mr. James’s vaulting ambition and prodigious talent.' New York Times

'James’ intoxicating prose is relentless, feverishly up-close inside his characters’ rattled nerves even as the narrative scope widens into an evocative portrait of the author’s native Kingston.' Entertainment Weekly, 'Ten Best Fiction Books of the Decade'

‘Not only persuasive, but tragic, though in its polyphony and scope it’s more than that... Comic, surreal, nightmarish, parodic.’ New York Times Book Review