Oneworld to publish 10th anniversary edition of Marlon James' A Brief History of Seven Killings

Oneworld is publishing a 10th anniversary edition of the Man Booker Prize-winning title A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James on 6th June 2024, accompanied by a UK tour. 

The new paperback edition features "a brand-new look" and a foreword from fellow Booker Prize-winner Bernardine Evaristo OBE. It also includes "new insights" from the author, reflecting on the past 10 years.  

"A lot of my readings are still from A Brief History, and I actually miss those characters, even though usually when I finish a book, I don’t look back," James said. "I don’t re-read my books because I don’t want to go back there. But I find that I still think about Nina Burgees, I still think about Weeper. So on a very personal level, I am excited about the anniversary edition and the book tour because I miss these characters and I’m looking forward to hopefully sharing them with a new generation of readers."

Publisher Juliet Mabey — the book’s editor — added: "Marlon was the first Jamaican to win the Man Booker Prize with A Brief History of Seven Killings, and it catapulted this dark, ambitious, multi-vocal novel to cult status, selling millions of copies worldwide. The 10th anniversary of its publication seemed an excellent time to reissue it with a new foreword, fresh new livery, along with a Q&A with the author on what the book has meant to him and his career and answering a few questions about the prose and structure along the way. We very much hope this fabulous new edition of such an important, iconic novel will help introduce it to a younger readership."

The publication of the anniversary edition will be supported by a publicity and marketing campaign. The author will be in the UK and Ireland from the end of May until early June, on a nationwide book tour. This will include festival appearances at the International Literature Festival, Dublin, Charleston Festival and Hay Festival, as well as bookshop events in Edinburgh, Manchester, Bristol, Bath and Brighton. The tour will finish with two events in London, the first of which will be hosted by Fane on publication day, at the 500-capacity Bloomsbury Theatre, and the second at Brixton Library.