ON the evening of December 3 1976, gunmen pounced on the Hope Road home of reggae star Bob Marley. The singer, who was rehearsing with his band for the Smile Jamaica peace concert two days later, was among four persons shot and injured.

Marlon James was only five years old at the time but like many incidents that took place in the turbulent 1970s, the shooting has always fascinated him.

It is the inspiration for his third book, A Brief History of Seven Killings which was released last year by Riverhead Books. Rights to the critically-acclaimed tome have been purchased by cable giant HBO for a potential series.

Production details have not yet been finalised but for James, it is a big deal.

“It’s very significant. I came out of media in a way and am happy to be returning to it. Books aren’t the only story I want to to tell and I have been fascinated with TV for years,” he told the Sunday Observer. “It would also be great to tell complicated Jamaican stories for a change. I think we’re too over-concerned with ‘brand Jamaica’, which can sometimes blind us to opportunities. So, instead of worry about whether a story about a murder would lead to people thinking murders happen in Jamaica, maybe focus on the world thinking Jamaica can be a place of complicated, sophisticated and irresistible stories,” he added.

James said HBO officials reached out to his agent early this year and expressed interest in serialising his book. Oscar-winning writer Eric Roth (Forrest Gump) would be involved in the project.

While he is excited about the prospect of his work being shown by arguably the biggest cable channel in the world, James is not getting carried away.

“It’s really still in the idea and planning stage. There are no guarantees in the film business, and while this is great news, it’s equally possible that we may never shoot a single shot,” he said.

Born in Kingston, James is a graduate of the University of the West Indies and Wilkes University in the United States. His previous books, The Book of Night Women and John Crow’s Devil, were released in 2010.

Those efforts were favourably received by mainstream American media. ‘A Brief History’ has got even stronger response.

Publishers Weekly wrote that “no book this fall is more impressive than A Brief History of Seven Killings”. The New York Times said James delivered a novel that is “epic in every sense of that word: sweeping, mythic, over the top, colossal and dizzyingly complex”.

Though he came of age in the 1990s, the fiery 1970s is a period that has always attracted James.

“I have a huge fascination for the ’70s because I was born in the ’70s. It was an endless playground for me, not so for people older than me. I want to know why,” he said.

With all the acclaim that has come his way, Marlon James points to a hunger to keep improving as a writer.

“I’m never satisfied. There is always another story, another mystery, another impossible to make possible.”