Marlon James, The Book of Night Women

Camille Isaacs (Ocad University)

Ed. by Abigail Ward, University of Nottingham
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 4.1.1: Anglophone Writing and Culture of Central America and the Caribbean.
Vol. editors: Ronald Cummings (McMaster University), Delphine Munos (Université de Liège), Melanie Otto (Trinity College Dublin), Jak Peake (University of Essex), Abigail Ward (University of Nottingham)

Dates

First circulation or publication 2009

Places

Jamaica (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

The Book of Night Women (2009) is Jamaican author Marlon James’ second published novel and demonstrates many of the characteristics that would later land him the Man Booker Prize (2015) for A History of Seven Killings (2014), namely an interest in under-represented histories, the use of the vernacular (Jamaican patois), psychological portraits of those engaging in often unspeakable acts, and what some consider a gratuitous use of violence. This novel is significant in appreciating the breadth of James’ oeuvre and what are developing as consistent themes in his work.

The Book of Night Women details the life of Lilith, a mulatto slave on the Montpelier Estate from 1785 to 1819. Lilith has green eyes, the …

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

1403 words

Citation: Isaacs, Camille. "The Book of Night Women". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 29 June 2016 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=35719, accessed 23 November 2024.]

Save this article