Along with several other mercenary hunters, he is hired by a slave trader to find a kidnapped boy, though who the boy is and why he is so valuable are mysteries to Tracker.

Centering on the search for a lost boy, the plot is relatively straightforward, though the narrator, Tracker, moves his story obliquely 'as crabs do, from one side to the next.' Tracker is a 'hunter of lost folk,' an ornery loner with an extraordinary nose that lets him pick up the scent of his quarry from miles away. Defying categorization and full of unforgettable characters, Black Leopard, Red Wolf is both surprising and profound as it explores the fundamentals of truth, the limits of power, and our need to understand them both.īooker winner James (A Brief History of Seven Killings) kicks off a planned trilogy with a trek across a fantastical Africa that is equal parts stimulating and enervating. As he struggles to survive, Tracker starts to wonder: Who, really, is this boy? Why has he been missing for so long? Why do so many people want to keep Tracker from finding him? And perhaps the most important questions of all: Who is telling the truth, and who is lying?ĭrawing from African history and mythology and his own rich imagination, Marlon James has written a novel unlike anything that's come before it: a saga of breathtaking adventure that's also an ambitious, involving read. The band is a hodgepodge, full of unusual characters with secrets of their own, including a shape-shifting man-animal known as Leopard.Īs Tracker follows the boy's scent-from one ancient city to another into dense forests and across deep rivers-he and the band are set upon by creatures intent on destroying them. Engaged to track down a mysterious boy who disappeared three years earlier, Tracker breaks his own rule of always working alone when he finds himself part of a group that comes together to search for the boy. Tracker is known far and wide for his skills as a hunter: 'He has a nose,' people say. In the stunning first novel in Marlon James's Dark Star trilogy, myth, fantasy, and history come together to explore what happens when a mercenary is hired to find a missing child. The epic novel from the Man Booker Prize-winning author of A Brief History of Seven Killings 'Gripping, action-packed.The literary equivalent of a Marvel Comics universe.' -Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times 'A fantasy world as well-realized as anything Tolkien made.' -Neil Gaiman Named a Best Book of 2019 by The Wall Street Journal, TIME, NPR, GQ, Vogue, and The Washington Post Times Ray Bradbury Prizeįinalist for the 2019 National Book Award

One of TIME’s 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time

Black leopard red wolf by marlon james