Man Booker Prize 2015 winner: Marlon James' A Brief History Of Seven Killings claims prestigious award

Professor Michael Wood, who chaired the judging panel, said the decision was unanimous
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Robert Dex @RobDexES14 October 2015

An epic 686-page tale of crime and violence inspired by the real-life assassination attempt of Bob Marley has won this year's Man Booker Prize.

Marlon James' A Brief History Of Seven Killings was the unanimous choice of the judging panel that included Evening Standard columnist Sam Leith.

Professor Michael Wood, who chaired the panel, said choosing the winner from the shortlist of six took less than two hours.

He told reporters:"We didn't have any difficulty deciding, it was actually a unanimous decision".

The novel, described as "a fictional history" of Marley's attempted murder in 1976", has a character list featuring drug lords, beauty queens and CIA agents and stretches from Jamaica to New York and Miami at the height of the trade in crack cocaine.

A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James

Professor Wood said it was "full of surprises" and "the most exciting book on the list".

It is not a straightforward read with more than 75 characters and long passages in Jamaican patois and a chapter in verse.

Professor Wood admitted that would put some readers off, as would graphic depictions of sex and violence.

He said:"Someone said to me they like to give the Booker winners to their mother to read but this might be a problem.

"Another reaction to this is people who don't want to read this kind of thing actually it's very good for them to do so".

But he insisted it was a worthy winner, telling journalists:"It spreads out to social condition, what sort of condition do these people live in and what sort of conditions allow, in this case, crack to develop".

James, who teaches creative writing in the US, picked up his £50,000 prize at a ceremony in London's Guildhall attended by HRH The Duchess of Cornwall.

He can also expect a substantial sales boost from the win - last year's winner Richard Flanagan's The Narrow Road to the Deep North sold 300,000 copies in the UK alone.

It is only the second year the prize has been open to writers regardless of nationality, having previously only been open to authors from the UK and Commonwealth, Ireland and Zimbabwe.

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