The Fortune Men
Shortlisted for the Booker Prize
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4.1 • 17 Ratings
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- £4.99
Publisher Description
SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2021
SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA NOVEL AWARD 2021
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WALES BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2022
'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
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, some-time petty thief. He is many things, in fact, but he is not a murderer.
So when a shopkeeper is brutally killed and all eyes fall on him, Mahmood isn't too worried. It is true that he has been getting into trouble more often since his Welsh wife Laura left him. But Mahmood is secure in his innocence in a country where, he thinks, justice is served.
It is only in the run-up to the trial, as the prospect of freedom dwindles, that it will dawn on Mahmood that he is in a terrifying fight for his life - against conspiracy, prejudice and the inhumanity of the state. And, under the shadow of the hangman's noose, he begins to realise that the truth may not be enough to save him.
'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
'A novel of tremendous power, compassion and subtlety, it feels unsettlingly timely' Pankaj Mishra
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Set in Cardiff, Wales, in 1952, this searing novel from Mohamed (The Orchard of Lost Souls) draws on a real-life miscarriage of justice—the hanging of Mahmood Mattan, a Somali man, for a murder he didn't commit. Mahmood, a small-time thief who has been desperate enough to steal money from the mosque he attends, has learned, or thinks he has, how to survive as a Black man in a city where the cops once beat a drunk to death simply because of his race: "to walk with his shoulders high, his elbows pointed out, his feet sliding slowly over the ground, his chin buried deep in his collar and his hat low over his face, to give nothing away apart from his masculinity." Unfortunately, when someone slits the throat of shopkeeper Violet Volacki, the police arrest Mahmood, setting the stage for his execution. Mohamed maintains a high level of tension as the tragedy slowly unfolds. An epilogue details how Mahmood was exonerated years later. This is a powerful portrayal of an innocent man trapped by a racist system that will resonate with readers familiar with such travesties of justice in the U.S.
