by Marlon James
On December 3, 1976, armed men burst into Bob Marley's house with machine guns blazing. The attack wounds the reggae star, his wife, and his manager just days before Jamaica's general election and the Smile Jamaica Concert. Marley performs at the free concert on December 5, then flees the country for two years. The story follows multiple voices across three decades: assassins, journalists, drug dealers, and ghosts navigate the violent aftermath of that December night. The narrative moves from Kingston's slums in the 1970s to New York's crack wars in the 1980s to a transformed Jamaica in the 1990s. Each character wrestles with the consequences of political violence that began with seven shots fired in a musician's home. James weaves their stories into a sprawling account of how one moment of terror ripples across continents and generations.
Genres: historical-fiction, 20th-century, crime, 21st-century, political-thriller, african-american-historical-fiction
Vibes: dark, emotional, fast-paced, thought-provoking
Tropes: multiple-narrators, political-intrigue, sprawling-narrative
Setting: Jamaica, Kingston, New York
Period: 1970s, 1980s, 1990s
Paperback
Content warnings: graphic-violence