John Crow's Devil: From the Man Booker prize-winning author of A Brief History of Seven Killings

Description

In the village of Gibbeah--where certain women fly and certain men protect secrets with their lives--magic coexists with religion, and good and evil are never as they seem. In this town, a battle is fought between two men of God. The story begins when a drunkard named Hector Bligh (the Rum Preacher) is dragged from his pulpit by a man calling himself Apostle York. Handsome and brash, York demands a fire-and-brimstone church, but sets in motion a phenomenal and deadly struggle for the soul of Gibbeah itself. John Crow's Devil is a novel about religious mania, redemption, sexual obsession, and the eternal struggle inside all of us between the righteous and the wicked.

Marlon James was born in Kingston, Jamaica. John Crow's Devil is his debut novel, published in North America in 2005 to widespread acclaim. It was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, and was a New York Times Editors' Choice. His second novel, The Book of Night Women (Oneworld 2009), won the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and the Minnesota Book Award, and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. His third novel, A Brief History of Seven Killings (Oneworld 2014), won the American Book Award, the Anisfield-Wolf Fiction Prize, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, Winner of the Man Booker Prize 2015, and featured in over twenty best books of the year lists. His short fiction and non-fiction has appeared in Esquire and Granta. He teaches at Macalester College, Minnesota, USA.

'Feels contemporary and necessary, exploring how religion can be used as justification for mankind's deepest urges'. * Press Association * 'A relentless excavation of an isolated village in which sex, violence and Jesus form a combustible trinity of catalysts and salves'. * New Statesman * 'Dense, lyrical and richly over the top'. * Sunday Times * 'Introduces us to his extraordinary talent...James jumps effortlessly between cut-glass English that would not disgrace Jane Austen, and the ripe, flexible, witty language of his childhood. Superb'. * The Times * 'James's slice of Caribbean gothic has terrific power and verve: it's quite a debut'. * Financial Times * 'John Crow's Devil is undoubtedly breathtaking for its imagination and its storytelling'. * Independent * 'A powerful first novel ... Writing with assurance and control, James uses his small-town drama to suggest the larger anguish of a postcolonial society struggling for its own identity.' * New York Times Book Review * 'A writer whose importance can scarcely be questioned.' * Independent *