--- description: He was awarded for his novel 'A Brief History of Seven Killings' title: Marlon James Wins the 2015 Man Booker Prize image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt429ef23a11d2a42c/69886824cd1bbaf7296fd9ee/marlon-james.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Books](/tag/books/) ## Books Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Marlon James Wins the 2015 Man Booker Prize by [Sarah Begley](/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Oct 13, 2015 9:02 PM CUT  Riverhead by [Sarah Begley](/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Oct 13, 2015 9:02 PM CUT Jamaican author Marlon James has been announced as the winner of the 2015 Man Booker Prize, for his novel [_A Brief History of Seven Killings_](http://www.amazon.com/dp/159448600X/?tag=timecom-20 "undefined")_._ The prestigious British award brings with it £50,000 (about $76,000) in addition to the £2,500 (about $3,800) awarded to each writer [on the shortlist](http://time.com/4034604/2015-man-booker-prize-shortlist/ "undefined"). Joining James on the shortlist were British authors Tom McCarthy for [_Satin Island_](http://www.amazon.com/dp/0307593959/?tag=timecom-20 "undefined")and Sunjeev Sahota for [_The Year of the Runaways_](http://www.amazon.com/dp/1101946105/?tag=timecom-20 "undefined")_,_ Nigerian Chigozie Obioma for [_The Fishermen_](http://www.amazon.com/dp/0957548850/?tag=timecom-20 "undefined")_,_ and Americans Anne Tyler for [_A Spool of Blue Thread_](http://www.amazon.com/dp/1101874279/?tag=timecom-20 "undefined")and Hanya Yanagihara for [_A Little Life_](http://www.amazon.com/dp/0385539258/?tag=timecom-20 "undefined"), which had been the favorite to win, and which is also long-listed for the National Book Award. This is only the second year that the prize was available to anyone writing in English and published in the U.K.; previously, nominees had been limited to those from the U.K., the Commonwealth, Ireland and Zimbabwe. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4072147/2015-man-booker-prize/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4072147/2015-man-booker-prize/"},"headline":"Marlon James Wins the 2015 Man Booker Prize","datePublished":"2015-10-13T21:02:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T11:45:48.232Z","description":"He was awarded for his novel A Brief History of Seven Killings","url":"https://time.com/4072147/2015-man-booker-prize/","keywords":["Books"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt429ef23a11d2a42c/69886824cd1bbaf7296fd9ee/marlon-james.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Begley","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt429ef23a11d2a42c/69886824cd1bbaf7296fd9ee/marlon-james.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"marlon-james","caption":"","creditText":"Riverhead","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/books/","name":"Books"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4072147/2015-man-booker-prize/","name":"Marlon James Wins the 2015 Man Booker Prize"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Best Free and Cheap Ebooks Sites","description":"Some of our favorite places to go for summer reading on the cheap.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/35n2mZWt/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-06-25T15:53:11.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/35n2mZWt.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4072147/2015-man-booker-prize/","duration":"PT1M42S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4072147/2015-man-booker-prize/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```