Overview

A heart-wrenching novel based on a true miscarriage of justice from an award-winning author Mahmood Mattan is a fixture in Cardiff's Tiger Bay, 1952, which bustles with Somali and West Indian sailors, Maltese businessmen and Jewish families. He is a father, chancer, petty criminal. He is many things, but he is not a murderer. So when a shopkeeper is brutally killed and all eyes fall on him, Mahmood isn't too worried. Witnesses allegedly saw him enter a shop that night and love lends him immunity too- the fierce love of his wife, who forgives his gambling in a heartbeat, and his children. It is only in the run-up to the trial, as the prospect of returning home dwindles, that it will dawn on Mahmood that he is in a fight for his life - against conspiracy, prejudice and cruelty - and the truth may not be enough to save him.

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9780241466957

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Reviews

A writer of great humanity and intelligence. Nadifa Mohamed deeply understands how lives are shaped both by the grand sweep of history and the intimate encounters of human beings -- Kamila Shamsie, author of Home Fire Chilling and utterly compelling, The Fortune Men shines an essential light on a much-neglected period of our national life -- Sathnam Sanghera, author of Empireland The Fortune Men describes how innocence is forced to justify itself before gross injustice. A novel of tremendous power, compassion and subtlety, it feels unsettlingly timely -- Pankaj Mishra In her determined, nuanced and compassionate exposure of injustice, Mohamed gives the terrible story of Mattan's life and death meaning and dignity * Guardian * The Fortune Men confirms Mohamed as a literary star of her generation. When Mohamed's prose - simple and full of soul - illuminated him, Mahmood emerges as a beacon of humour, hope and endurance * Observer * Based on real events, Mohamed's novel is panoramic in its scope and rich in period atmosphere, vividly tracing the desperate livers of the victim and the accused * Mail on Sunday * The Fortune Men is a novel on fire, a restitution of justice in prose * FT * The Fortune Men is that rare novel that breaks your heart and, in so doing, gives you life. Nadifa Mohamed is a revelation - she writes with the fierce compassionate lightning of a truth-teller, lays bare the ghastly colonial condition that afflicts so many of us, where truth cannot overcome injustice. If a novel can be an avenger then The Fortune Men is the one we've all been waiting for -- Junot Diaz Mohamed is . . . intent on expanding her world, listing its teeming varieties and presenting a wealth of character and language * TLS * Evocative and enlightening * New Statesman * A moving work * The Week, Novel of the Week * Nadifa Mohamed's richly evocative novel paints a vivid picture of life in this notorious neighbourhood as she visits a forgotten miscarriage of justice * Vogue * [Mohamed] creates an intriguing snapshot of an era and a complex main character you can't help but root for * The Times * It's unbearably wrenching . . . Mohamed makes the outrage at the book's heart blazingly unignorable by inhabiting Mattan's point of view, a bold endeavour pulled off to powerful effect. Passages from the barbaric climax are still echoing in my head, even as I type * Daily Mail * A searing and moving look at institutional racism and the helplessness you can feel in the face of prejudice * Independent * Just as Half of a Yellow Sun drew out the little documented dramas of the Biafran war, Mohamed describes an East Africa under Mussolini's rule . . . such an accomplished first novel * Independent, on Black Mamba Boy * A first novel of elegance and beauty... a stunning debut * The Times, on Black Mamba Boy * A haunting and intimate portrait of the lives of women in war-torn Somalia * New York Journal of Books, on The Orchard of Lost Souls * Mixing startling lyricism and sheer brutality, this is a significant, affecting book * Guardian, on Black Mamba Boy * With the unadorned language of a wise, clear-eyed observer, Nadifa Mohamed has spun an unforgettable tale * Taiye Selasi, on The Orchard of Lost Souls * A moving and captivating tale of survival and hope in a war-torn country, and confirms Mohamed's stature as one of Britain's best young novelists * Stylist on The Orchard of Lost Souls *

Grippingly-paced and full of complex, richly-drawn characters, the novel combines pointed social observation with a deeply empathetic sensibility. The Fortune Men demonstrates what historical fiction can achieve at its best -- Maya Jasanoff, Chair of the Booker Prize 2021 In her determined, nuanced and compassionate exposure of injustice, Mohamed gives the terrible story of Mattan's life and death meaning and dignity * Guardian * The Fortune Men is a novel on fire, a restitution of justice in prose * FT * A searing and moving look at institutional racism and the helplessness you can feel in the face of prejudice * Independent * A writer of great humanity and intelligence. Nadifa Mohamed deeply understands how lives are shaped both by the grand sweep of history and the intimate encounters of human beings -- Kamila Shamsie, author of Home Fire Chilling and utterly compelling, The Fortune Men shines an essential light on a much-neglected period of our national life -- Sathnam Sanghera, author of Empireland The Fortune Men describes how innocence is forced to justify itself before gross injustice. A novel of tremendous power, compassion and subtlety, it feels unsettlingly timely -- Pankaj Mishra The Fortune Men confirms Mohamed as a literary star of her generation. When Mohamed's prose - simple and full of soul - illuminated him, Mahmood emerges as a beacon of humour, hope and endurance * Observer * Based on real events, Mohamed's novel is panoramic in its scope and rich in period atmosphere, vividly tracing the desperate livers of the victim and the accused * Mail on Sunday * The Fortune Men is that rare novel that breaks your heart and, in so doing, gives you life. Nadifa Mohamed is a revelation - she writes with the fierce compassionate lightning of a truth-teller, lays bare the ghastly colonial condition that afflicts so many of us, where truth cannot overcome injustice. If a novel can be an avenger then The Fortune Men is the one we've all been waiting for -- Junot Diaz Mohamed is . . . intent on expanding her world, listing its teeming varieties and presenting a wealth of character and language * TLS * Evocative and enlightening * New Statesman * Heaving with life . . . The Fortune Men excavates the forgotten reaches of British colonial history . . . The purposeful detail is an implicit corrective to all the times when the lives of people like Mattan have not been considered at all * Telegraph * A moving work * The Week, Novel of the Week * Nadifa Mohamed's richly evocative novel paints a vivid picture of life in this notorious neighbourhood as she visits a forgotten miscarriage of justice * Vogue * [Mohamed] creates an intriguing snapshot of an era and a complex main character you can't help but root for * The Times * It's unbearably wrenching . . . Mohamed makes the outrage at the book's heart blazingly unignorable by inhabiting Mattan's point of view, a bold endeavour pulled off to powerful effect. Passages from the barbaric climax are still echoing in my head, even as I type * Daily Mail * Just as Half of a Yellow Sun drew out the little documented dramas of the Biafran war, Mohamed describes an East Africa under Mussolini's rule . . . such an accomplished first novel * Independent, on Black Mamba Boy * A first novel of elegance and beauty... a stunning debut * The Times, on Black Mamba Boy * A haunting and intimate portrait of the lives of women in war-torn Somalia * New York Journal of Books, on The Orchard of Lost Souls * Mixing startling lyricism and sheer brutality, this is a significant, affecting book * Guardian, on Black Mamba Boy * With the unadorned language of a wise, clear-eyed observer, Nadifa Mohamed has spun an unforgettable tale * Taiye Selasi, on The Orchard of Lost Souls * A moving and captivating tale of survival and hope in a war-torn country, and confirms Mohamed's stature as one of Britain's best young novelists * Stylist on The Orchard of Lost Souls *

Author Information

Nadifa Mohamed was born in Hargeisa, Somaliland, in 1981 and moved to Britain at the age of four. Her first novel, Black Mamba Boy, won the Betty Trask Prize; it was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award, the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, the Dylan Thomas Prize and the PEN Open Book Award. Her second novel, Orchard of Lost Souls, won a Somerset Maugham Award and the Prix Albert Bernard. Nadifa Mohamed was selected for the Granta Best of Young British Novelists in 2013, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. The Fortune Men was shortlisted for the 2021 Booker Prize and the Costa Novel Award. Nadifa Mohamed lives in London.

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