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The Book of Night Women
From the Man Booker prize-winning author of A Brief History of Seven Killings
By Marlon James
Published by Oneworld Publications
Distributed by Simon & Schuster
Table of Contents
About The Book
A startling, hard-edged dissection of slavery and a tour de force of both voice and storytelling
'A story of such depth and humanity that you’ll want to spend hours picking apart the nuances even as you recover emotionally from this wrenching read.' Vogue
By the Man Booker-winning author Marlon James, this is the powerful story of Lilith, born into slavery on a Jamaican sugar plantation at the end of the eighteenth century. Even at her birth, the Night Women – a clandestine council of fierce slaves plotting an island-wide revolt – recognize a dark force in her that they treat with both reverence and fear. But as Lilith comes of age and begins to understand her own feelings and identity, she dares to push at the edges of what is imaginable for the life of a slave woman. And as rebellions simmer and unspoken jealousies intensify, Lilith’s powers and sense of purpose threaten not just her own destiny, but the destinies of all the slave women in Jamaica.
'A story of such depth and humanity that you’ll want to spend hours picking apart the nuances even as you recover emotionally from this wrenching read.' Vogue
By the Man Booker-winning author Marlon James, this is the powerful story of Lilith, born into slavery on a Jamaican sugar plantation at the end of the eighteenth century. Even at her birth, the Night Women – a clandestine council of fierce slaves plotting an island-wide revolt – recognize a dark force in her that they treat with both reverence and fear. But as Lilith comes of age and begins to understand her own feelings and identity, she dares to push at the edges of what is imaginable for the life of a slave woman. And as rebellions simmer and unspoken jealousies intensify, Lilith’s powers and sense of purpose threaten not just her own destiny, but the destinies of all the slave women in Jamaica.
Product Details
- Publisher: Oneworld Publications (October 2, 2014)
- Length: 432 pages
- ISBN13: 9781780747132
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Raves and Reviews
'One of the most expanding, lyrical, relevant novels I will ever read.'
– Jessie Burton, author of The Miniaturist
'Both beautifully written and devastating.'
– New York Times
‘It reads like Faulkner in another skin. It is a brave book. And like the best, and most dangerous of stories, it seems as if it was just waiting to be told.’
– Colum McCann, author of Zoli and Dancer
‘An exquisite, haunting and beautiful novel... like the best of literature [it] deserves to be passed down hand to hand, generation to generation.’
– Dinaw Mengestu, author of The Beautiful Things
‘An epic novel of late-18thcentury West Indian slavery, complete with all its carnage and brutishness, but one that, like a Toni Morrison novel, whispers rather than shouts its horrors.’
– Time Out
'The Book of Night Women by Marlon James is so uniquely devastating, it’s ideal to have a support system in the form of a book club to read with. Exploring the particularly cruel form of slavery that existed on Jamaican sugar plantations, James brings up thorny issues of consent, desire, love, class, and power without resorting to clichés, presenting a story of such depth and humanity that you’ll want to spend hours picking apart the nuances even as you recover emotionally from this wrenching read.' Vogue, 'The Best Book Club Books for Your Next Group Read'
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- Book Cover Image (jpg): The Book of Night Women eBook 9781780747132
