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This is one of the most misleading titles I have ever come across. The book is neither brief, nor is it the story of seven killings with its suggestion of serial murders. Very briefly, at the most superficial level, it narrates the story of Bob Marley, the Jamaican reggae singer, the target of an assassination attempt in the 1970s.Bob Marley is referred to as the ’Singer’ in the book and the assassination attempt on his life is touched upon constantly. But for what purpose? Not clear in the story which is confusing, chaotic and kaleidoscopic.

Oliver Sacks, who is the author of a dozen books on the neurological mysteries stemming from impairments of the brain resulting in odd, un-understood behaviours, is known by the lay public primarily through the movie, Awakenings, based on his work with patients who were survivors of encephalitis lethargica. The so-called ‘sleeping sickness’ had killed many thousands in the 1920s and those who survived but had not recovered, were housed in a hospital where Dr Sacks started working in 1966.

Reading one Rushdie novel is like reading another. Good fun. You try to see if you can read it in one sitting because you are not too sure even a book mark would convince you where you left off or whether it was even the same book you were reading. Each book now is a blur and is smokey around the edges and seems to be incestuous and promiscuous, melting weak kneed and sometimes penetrating viciously into other books of his (and his own life) and that of others and also all popular cultural texts that have come anywhere near him.

In an interview in 2012, Amitav Ghosh had described his art thus, distinguishing his writing from that of the historian: ‘History is like a river, and the historian is writing about the ways the river flows and the currents and crosscurrents in the river. But, within this river, there are also fish, and the fish can swim in many different directions. So, I am looking at it from the fish’s point of view and which direction the fish swims in. So, history is the water in which it swims, and it is important for me to know the flow of the water. But in the end I am interested in the fish.’