This one is tricky to review. I found the writing somewhat monotonous, and the narrative lags along with the human disconnects were quite frustrating. BUT, it's based on a true story and that always piques my interest. The exploration of racism, culture, colonialism, and economics in the story were really important and I learned a lot from it. While the historical context makes this book worthwhile, it wasn't a captivating read for me and felt like a bit of a slog at times.

Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience

This is based on the true story of Mahmood Mataan a Somali man who was framed and later hanged for the murder of a shop keeper in Cardiff, Wales. It is a story of injustice and the flawed justice system, the racism he faced and his longing for his birth city of Hargeisa. I was familiar with this case as a British Somali, and intrigued to read the authors non fiction account. I did find it deeply moving particularly knowing the sad ending and tragedy of it all, however what made this a 4 star rather than a 5 it was too long and dragged at parts. By the mid section it got repetitive and as it was non fiction the story could’ve went into Mahmood and the other Somali sailors more, and also his wife Laura. This is a deeply moving book , a story that needed to be told written in a respectful and seemingly well researched way.

Thank you to Penguin UK books and Netgalley for this ARC.

Found this so interesting, so moving & at times absolutely horrifying. Everyone should read this book.

I read every book by Nadifa Mohamed and loved each one , and this one didn't disappoint . I knew this story to be true story but didn't know how even sadder than what I read.

Mahmood Mattan story needed to be told and Nadifa told it in great way. it was emotional book and while I knew the end , this book made me heartbroken ( the scene in the cell).

This is a fictional retelling of a true story. Although it was well written I felt that the characters lacked anything that made me connect with them. I'm not sure if that was the intention of the author because that's how the people actually were or, if its merely the way it was written. I'm glad to have read it to learn about what happened so others may be interested for that reason.

What a heart-breaking story! This novel is based on real-life events with Mahmood's story being sympathetically recreated. I hope that anyone who was involved with this case is thoroughly ashamed of themselves. In spite of compelling evidence to the contrary, Mahmood Mattan is charged with the murder of a white woman. Mahmood is clearly flawed - but who isn't - and this story is soaked with preconceived ideas and racist opinions. I love how Mahmood remains true to himself and honourable in the face of all adversity. His lack of education and self-belief do not help, but ultimately he is let down by a system which is prejudiced and all-powerful.

The book is slow, but fascinating, and horrific due to knowing that it is based on life events.

I am afraid that I have had to DNF this book. I cannot tell you how much I wanted to enjoy it but sadly for me it just did not get going or hold my interest. The synopsis reeled me in for sure whereas upon reading it ive found that it has not delivered on my initial interest of a great plot. Reading the first 42% of the book the story has jumped around so much between characters that I cannot keep up. Also, I find myself every time I go to pick the book up struggling to get into it and connect with the characters because its jumping so much. I'm very disappointed as I really wanted to love and rave about this book. I do not like not finishing.a book however sadly this is one thats not worked for me.

On a positive note, I can say that I had no issue with the quality of writing. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for my review copy.

Mohammed Mattan had lived the life of a drifter until he met Laura and they quickly produced three sons. In the Tiger Bay of the 1950s mixed race marriages weren't unusual and the whole area was a melting pot of cultures. His relationship with Laura was tempestuous and as they split, Mattan became more involved in petty crime but when he was arrested for murder he believed the truth would be seen quickly. The murdered woman was a Jewish stalwart of the community and suddenly the factions are against each other with Mattan in the middle - is he the Somali seen at the shop just before the body was discovered?
This book is absolutely brilliant! The characters are incredibly well developed, the pride and sense of belief in British justice, the setting in cosmopolitan but shabby Cardiff, the way that racism, religion and relationships are handled - it is a deeply moving book. Then I reached the end and discovered that this is a novelisation of a true story. WOW

I found this a hard to read book at times, not becausae of the style of writing but with some of the material covered within. the main character is an interesting person and is devekoped well. However the story takes a twist in the last part which is hard to digest!
You will feel for him and his family.
Well written and very different,

The Fortune Men is the third novel by Nadifa Mohamed. It’s the fictional account of a historic miscarriage of junction that took place in Tiger Bay, Cardiff, Wales in 1952. It was set against the backdrop of the passing of George VI and the coronation of Elizabeth II.

It tells the story of Mahmoud Mattan, a Somali sailor who was arrested and charged with the murder of a local shopkeeper, Violet Volacki. The rationale for his arrest and subsequent trial was that witnesses said they saw a Somali man in the vicinity.

Reading of the rich diversity in Cardiff, characters came from an array of backgrounds, and it was nice to see this diversity set in a book outside London.

As a 2021 reader, it is sad to say that we still live in a time when a Black man could be found guilty of a crime he did not commit, purely based on the colour of his skin. Thankfully, however, due to the abolition of the death penalty in Britain in 1965 this would no longer result in someone legally losing their life, despite being innocent.

***Thank you Netgalley and Penguin for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.***

I really wanted to love this book but instead, I found it a terrible drag to get through. We know - thanks to the blurb - everything we need to know about what's going to happen. It wouldn't be a great miscarriage of justice and the protagonist wouldn't have been the last man hanged in Wales if everything had worked out as it should have done. Just saying! It's not as if every reader will have known about his case but there wasn't much left to surprise us after that.

The book sets the scene in a rather laboured way. We learn about the little Jewish shopkeeper. We learn about the Somali ex-seaman and his white Welsh wife and their children. We learn about his life that's lived not entirely within the law. All of that takes quite some time before getting to the murder.

Once Mahmood has been arrested and incarcerated, the author goes off into great long reveries about his life in Somalia, how he feels about his wife and kids and just about everything else. Now I know this is positioned as a 'fictional' examination of the case, but there's way too much imagining what he might have been thinking about and how he might have been feeling and - as far as I can make out (since the guy couldn't read or write) - it's all just conjecture. Now there's a place for that sort of thing but I don't think it should make up such a major chunk of a novel.

One of the most interesting parts is the account of the trial which might - or might not, I'm not sure - be verbatim from the court records (in which case, it's bordering on plagiarism or if it's not verbatim, then it's interpretative again. Hmm. This just leaves a bad feeling with me.

What could have made this book less tedious would have been a startling revelation of who really did it, or better coverage of the issues that got his conviction overturned on appeal decades later, but all of that felt rather rushed.

I think Mahmood Matten and his family deserved to have their story told but for me, this wasn't a great book and I feel they deserved better.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for my copy.

This novel is based on a great injustice in UK history. Mahmood Mattan is a petty criminal living in Tiger Bay, Cardiff. When a Jewish shopkeeper is murdered, witnesses come forward saying that they saw him at the scene. Mahmood protests his innocence, and is very sure that the police have no case, and that this will all go away eventually.

He is very wrong.

At the outset, Mahmood is not an empathetic character, more of thief, a chancer and a womaniser who has been kicked out by his wife. But as the net closes in around him and the harm being done to him by police and people giving false testimony grows and grows, it becomes clear that he is a victim of racism and petty rivalries. I did not realise until the end that this was a real case, and that Mahmood was a real person who suffered a devastating fate. A great read.

This is a fictionalised retelling of the tragic story of Mahmood Mattan, one of the last men to be executed in Wales – and for a crime he didn’t commit. Set in a poor multi-cultural area of Tiger bay, Cardiff, in 1952, one night a woman is murdered. The police arrest Mattan, although there is no evidence – just hearsay that a “Somali” was seen near the scene. The police are complicit in getting a conviction, and it is soon apparent that Mattan is going to be a scapegoat. It’s a bleak tale, quite horrifying in its injustice, and sadly still relevant to today’s society. Although presented as a novel, the story is firmly based on the known facts, and the author has done her research to good effect. There is some invention, and some names have been changed, but overall it remains authentic. The author is in full control of her narrative throughout, and the pacing is good, although I did find it a little over-detailed in the early parts. Also so many disparate characters are introduced at the start that it took me a while to fully engage with the diverse neighbourhood they inhabit. All credit to the author for bringing this terrible miscarriage of justice back into the public eye. A compelling and haunting read.

The Fortune Men is a story of shame, of injustice and is a story that leaves a dark stain on the British criminal justice system. Based on the true story of Mahmood Mattan, a Somali man living in Cardiff's Tiger Bay, who is accused of the brutal murder of a local shopkeeper (in the book Violet, but the real victim was called Lily).

The first quarter of the book, I did struggle with. It felt disjointed and I felt disconnected from the story. But for other readers who may feel the same way, please persevere. It is wholly worth it. From arrest to sentence, Mahmood proclaims his innocence, and the evidence is flimsy at best. But it is 1952, and a man of colour is fighting more than injustice. I can't say too much more as I don't want to spoil anything, but there are devastating scenes that are written with such emotion. The writing is lyrical and expressive, and I was so moved. A book that is important in being a testament to a man who travelled the world and lived with hope, until his last breath.

THE FORTUNE MEN

Nadifa Mohamed’s third book is released this summer!

It is a historical fiction of Mahmood Mattan, a Muslim Somali man who was wrongfully executed for a murderer of a Jewish shopkeeper in 1950’s Cardiff. It is Mohamed’s fiction version of Mahmood Hussein Mattan’s real life.
It was depressing and emotionally draining to learn about the characters’ lives but the complexity of issues brought up here is exceptional.

Mahmood Mattan was addicted to gambling, forcing his White wife Laura to kick him out from home, but they still loved each other and care for his three children. When Violet Volacki was murdered with a wide cut on her throat, her sister Diana was teaching her daughter Grace dancing a few steps away from the crime scene. Once the family mentioned that they saw a dark man left the front porch of the shop, the police led by Inspector Powell started their search of local boarding houses around the port. They were looking for the culprit who disrespected the authorities and Inspector Powell hated interracial marriages so Mattan was the one to arrest.

As the story moved to when Mattan was waiting for his trial, I learned about Mattan’s inner self and history: about him growing up in Somalia in the times of British colonial time, Italian occupation and post war phase. The development of Mattan’s character moved religiously as I reached to the conclusion. The prose of Mattan in his final moments was heart wrenching and poignant.

The ending was surprising for someone who went reading this book cluelessly. Mattan was resilient and hopeful in the legal systems, but still the state failed him. The final showed a strength of love between Mahmood and Laura and the boys, friendship between him and Berlin, and lastly, faith between Mahmood and his Creator.

I was drowning into reading the chapters as Mohamed has beautifully narrates Mahmood Mattan’s life into fiction with sensitivity and power.

Our forever fave @leilaabouleila was even under the spell of this book saying it was potent and urgent new novel. To everyone who loves historical fiction focusing on racial prejudice and faulty British justice system, this one is for you!

Post-read: Googled right away Mahmood Mattan right away and learned about the history of Somali sailormen from BBC and found the news that the family who’ve fought for justice for decades was finally compensated by the state. He was named “The Last Innocent Person to be Hanged in Wales” by Wales Online as the UK abolished hanging by murder in 1969.

Thank you @NetGalley and Viking for the e-ARC in return for an honest review.

#IndahMarwanReads
#TheReadingMama
#NadifaMohamed
#TheFortuneMen

The Fortune Men by Nadifa Mohamed is set in Tiger Bay, Cardiff in 1952 and follows the terrifying story of Mahmood Mattan who is wrongly accused and convicted of murdering a local shopkeeper. This is based on a true story, an important one and one of which I certainly was not aware, it tells of the injustice in the UK judicial system and prejudices harboured against “non-white” members of a community in the post war era of the 1950’s. Unfortunately and worryingly, some of these still exist within today’s society.

I will admit, I did struggle with the first half of this book, the storyline jumped about quickly between characters and I found it difficult to get into the plot as well as connect with any of the characters. I persevered and after the 50% mark, I felt the writing became more settled and the second half was markedly stronger. There was a large section of the story which focused in detail on Mahmood’s background and upbringing in Somalia, which on reflection, I didn’t feel enhanced the story in any way or connect me to his character. I did enjoy the way in which the trial was written, following the dialect of questions and answers between the barrister and each of the witnesses. Overall, I feel this book tells a significant if bleak story, one which made me incredibly angry and appalled, especially upon reading the epilogue about the real case. I’m glad I stuck with it until the end and it’s definitely a book I will be telling people about.

The Fortune Men by Nadifa Mohamed ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Synopsis: Mahmood Mattan is a Somali man living in Tiger Bay, Cardiff in 1952. He is married to Welsh girl Laura and has three sons, known as a chancer and petty thief, but is he a murderer?

Mattan is accused of murdering a woman in her shop by cutting her throat. Time is running out and no one will believe him....

Review: I must admit I did not read the blurb for the book before I requested it via @netgalley so I assumed that it was a book about the so called Somali 'Fortune men' who had fought in the war and settled in England afterwards and although Mattan is one of these men, this book takes a big nose dive into tragedy quite early on.

I'm hoping this is not too much of a spoiler but as this is a real man, a real case, it is hard to stay away from spoilers when reading it. Mattan was the last man to be hanged in Cardiff for a murder and since then, nearly fifty years after the crime, he has been exonerated, his body exhumed and he is laid to rest beside his family.

Mohamed writes about this tragedy beautifully. Mattan is a chancer, a loveable rogue and I enjoyed reading about his earlier life. Court transcripts of witness evidence is scant indeed. His defence solicitor, someone on *his* side, describes him as 'this half child of nature, a semi-civilised savage' which is truly shocking. As it leads to the inevitable I was filled with dread for him and the meetings with his wife and three sons were heartbreaking.

This biographical fiction seems so horrifically apt for today's world, it worries me that this happened nearly 70 years ago. Justice is a funny thing and is so often subjective, I wonder that it could ever be truly in the hands of humans.

A very powerful read. Thank you to Netgalley and Viking books for my ARC of this novel.

The Fortune Men, the third novel by Nadifa Mohamed, is set in in Cardiff in the 1950-ies, in the bustling area of Tiger Bay (Cardiff docks). It fictionalises the true story of Somali-born Mahmood Mattan, the last man hanged in the Cardiff prison who was wrongfully sentenced to death for the brutal murder of a Jewish shopkeeper, Lily Volpert (Violet Volacki in the novel).
This is a fabulous novel that delves confidently into the complexities of the characters and their time. Mattan, a sailor originally from British Somaliland, is married to Laura, a white Welsh woman who has given him three children. The young family suffers racism and abuse, and the couple eventually separates, though in the novel Mattan is trying to win back Laura’s trust. Far from being a saint, Mattan, is a flawed, complex and captivating character with picaresque traits. He lives off petty theft and gambling and loves women a bit too much (a tragic flaw). With his broken English, his vitality, his desire not to disappoint his wife, his broken English, his pride and his frank manners he is a terrific character.
When it comes to the Violet’s murder. Everyone is convinced a Somali is the culprit, yet the evidence against Mattan is faulty and a reward offered by the victim’s family makes fabrications appetising. Racism is everywhere, in the streets and in court as the lawyer himself defines Mattan as a half-savage. Though Mattan is painfully aware, he has an unshakeable faith in justice that makes him believe he will not be convicted (heart-breaking).
Mattan is the main character out of a memorable cast, which includes the members of his family, Violet’s family, the vulture witnesses interested in the reward, his mates at the boarding house and the neighbourhood itself, the docks of Tiger Bay with its multicultural population including Maltese, Jamaicans Somali, Muslims, Jews. The narration is vivid to the last detail (the hats, the polished shoes). There are also very interesting historical parts that detail the background of the characters (in British Somali Land, for example, or the Volacki’s Russian back-story and the Holocaust anxieties).
Mattan was rehabilitated post-mortem -- the first of a number of cases -- though the damage to the family could not be undone. Mohamed does a tremendous job building the most compelling story around this chilling case of injustice and racism. This story demanded to go out of the courts and be be told.

I am afraid that this book was not to my liking. It was slow and boring and I gave up part way through. The writing was good but the genre which was a new one to me did not entice me. Thanks for the chance to read pre release.