The Book of Night Women

This is the 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.

Winner of Dayton Literary Peace Prize 2010

“'Both beautifully written and devastating.'”

'One of the most expanding, lyrical, relevant novels I will ever read.'

‘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.’

‘An exquisite, haunting and beautiful novel... like the best of literature [it] deserves to be passed down hand to hand, generation to generation.’

‘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.’

'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'

Marlon James was born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1970. He graduated from the University of the West Indies with a degree in literature. He currently teaches a creative writing course in Minnesota and is working on his next novel.

This is the 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.

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