The Fortune Men

English language

Published March 9, 2021 by Penguin.

ISBN:: 9789780241469

(1 review)

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 …

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.

1 edition

alx@bookwyrm.social reviewed The Fortune Men by Nadifa Mohamed

5 stars

A fictionalised account of the case of Mahmood Matin, a Somali in 1950s Cardiff who was wrongfully accused of a violent crime.

The author writes an evocative depiction of the Tiger Bay area, while avoiding leaning into long descriptions and spurious period detail. Instead, she shows us through her characters the community-of-communities in the docklands, and the tensions that existed within it.

A definite recommend for the general reader - though I found it particularly of interest being from Cardiff myself, and the grandchild of immigrants who came to South Wales because of the shipping industry.

(Listened to the audio version, read well by Hugh Quarshie.)

Subjects

Fictionalised history
Wales
Miscarriage of justice