Marlon James has won the Booker Award and been a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Awards for his wrenching novel, A Brief History of Seven Killings. That book delved into Jamaican history, and the New York City drug wars of the 90s, but James is looking for a slightly different topic for his next project. He has, in fact, decided to “geek the fuck out”. In an interview with Man of the World, James talked about his next project, Black Leopard, Red Wolf, a fantasy series which will be “an African Game of Thrones”.
I realized how sick and tired I was of arguing about whether there should be a black hobbit in Lord of the Rings. African folklore is just as rich, and just as perverse as that shit. We have witches, we have demons, we have goblins, and mad kings. We have stories of royal succession that would put Wolf Hall to shame. We beat the Tudors two times over.
And in case you’re worried that James will produce something stuffy, well, here’s what he’s really excited about: “One hundred pages describing a village? Hell yeah. A big appendix on magic techniques? Of course I’m gonna do it. Two hundred pages on a mysterious dwarf race that lives underground? Fuck yes.”
OK, why isn’t this book in our brains already?
