Marlon James wins the Man Booker Prize for A Brief History of Seven Killings

Marlon James' A Brief History of Seven Killings has been awarded the 2015 Man Booker Prize, which annually honors the best novel written in English.

The Jamaica-born author's A Brief History of Seven Killings offers a fictionalized take on a real-life attempt to assassinate reggae legend Bob Marley in 1976. According to The Guardian, chair of judges Michael Wood praised the 686-page novel as "the most exciting book on the list," while acknowledging that its explicit content — including plenty of violence and cursing — might make it the kind of book his mother wouldn't read.

This is the second year that the Man Booker Prize, which was previously awarded solely to members of the British Commonwealth, has been available to all English-language writers. Other novels on this year's short list included Tom McCarthy's Satin Island, Chigozie Obioma's The Fishermen, and Hanya Yanagihara's A Little Life.

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