The novel has five sections, each named after a musical track and covering the events of a single day:
- Original Rockers - December 2, 1976
- Ambush in the Night - December 3, 1976
- Shadow Dancin' - February 15, 1979
- White Lines/Kids in America - August 14, 1985
- Sound Boy Killing - March 22, 1991
(born 24 November 1970) is a Jamaican writer. He has taught literature and creative writing at Malcalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota since 2007. His first novel, John Crow's Devil, tells the story of a biblical struggle in a remote Jamaican village in 1957. His second novel, The Book of Night Women, is about a slave woman's revolt in a Jamaican plantation in the early 19th century. His 2014 novel, A Brief History of Seven Killings, explores the history of Jamaican political instability between 1976 and 1991, it won the Man Booker Prize in 2015. James' fourth book, ‘Black Leopard, Red Wolf’, is a Fantasy novel, the first book in a planned trilogy series.