HBO Buys Screen Rights For Jamaican Writer’s Novel

The Bookseller has reported that the American premium cable and satellite television network, HBO,  has purchased the screen rights for A Brief History of Seven Killings (Oneworld) by Jamaican writer Marlon James.

The novel was published in 2014 and was inspired by an incident that took place in 1976 where Bob Marley’s house was attacked by gunmen.

It spans three decades and chronicles the lives of a numerous characters, from slum kids to drug lords and the CIA.

The book won both the Anisfield-Wolf Fiction Prize for books that contribute to our understanding of racism and cultural diversity and the OCM Bocas Fiction Prize for Caribbean Literature.

HBO plans to produce an ongoing series, with award-winning screenwriter Eric Roth penning the script the Bookseller also reported.