We pit the winner of the 2015 Man Booker Prize, A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James, against How to be Both by Ali Smith, the title which won the Bailey's Women's Prize for Fiction. Let battle commence...

Stylist’s contributing books editor Francesca Brown is evangelical about A Brief History Of Seven Killings by Marlon James (£6.99, Oneworld, itunes.apple.com), out now

This is it. Like Rocky v Apollo Creed, Godzilla v Mothra, Ronda Rousey v Holly Holm… this is the Book Wars to end all Book Wars as we pit the winners of 2015’s Man Booker Prize against the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction. So first things first: of course they’re both astonishing and brilliant books. You don’t win prizes of this prestige without creating something pretty special indeed.

They’re also weirdly similar, mashing up fact and fiction with multiple narrators and timeframes that jump decades and centuries. Both even reference a mix of brilliant music (How To Be Both refers to a photo of French pop singers Sylvie Vartan and Françoise Hardy which also doubles up as the book’s cover while the events of A Brief History Of Seven Killings whirl around an attempted assassination of reggae superstar Bob Marley in 1976).

But, while I admired Smith’s forensic exploration of grief and innovative structure, it didn’t win my heart. Marlon James, however, had me from hello. Working my way through the Booker shortlist, I was tentative about picking up A Brief History… unsure whether a 704-page book featuring Jamaican drug wars, CIA plots and gang murders was really what I wanted to relax with before bedtime. But from the first chapter – told from the perspective of a dead man – I was held rapt.

Marrying together the voices (and dialects) of underage criminals, hit men, care workers, drug lords, one-night stands and politicians, James unravels the story of Jamaica and beyond; a tale of the Seventies and Eighties, political corruption, international cartels and personal histories. It’s ambitious, moving and, at times, very funny (much like the author himself who was a headline act at our four-day event Stylist Live back in October).

Not just the Man Booker prize-winner of the year, Marlon James’ A Brief History Of Seven Killings is the book of the year. Or put simply: a total knockout.

Rating: 5/5

Book wars: A Brief History of Seven Killings versus How to be Both