The Fortune Men

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 *