The Fortune Men by Nadifa Mohamed - #bookreview

 

'The King is dead. Love live the Queen.' The announcers voice crackles from the wireless and winds around the rapt patrons of Berlin's Milk Bar as sinuously as the fog curls around the mournful street lamps, their wan glow barely illuminating the cobblestones.

The noise settles as milkshakes and colas clink against Irish coffees, and chairs scrape against the black-and-white tiled floor.

Berlin hammers a spoon against the bar and calls out with his lion tamer's bark, 'Raise your glasses, ladies and gentlemen, and send off our old King to Davy Jones's Locker.'

***

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.

***

This compelling novel, which is based on factual events, is an outstanding book and one of the best I have read this year. Set in 1950's Tiger Bay, Cardiff it exudes with atmosphere and highlights the racial injustice suffered by the main character, Mahmood Mattan and his contemporaries.

I particularly enjoyed reading about this melting pot of characters who have settled in Tiger Bay from other parts of the world. This mixture of nationalities and faiths culminated in the occurrence of racial tensions, and it was this that led Mahmood to come to be in the position he did.

This character driven novel permits the reader to follow Mahmood through his time living and working in Tiger Bay, to his imprisonment for a murder which he did not commit. Despite his life experience, Mahmood seemed to have a naivety about him and had complete faith that the British justice system would come to recognise the truth of his situation.

I found this to be a heartbreaking read, written with sensitivity, intelligence and humanity. It was a calm, appropriately paced, devastating novel.

Every now and then, a novel comes along which I feel privileged to have read. This was one such book and I applaud the author for bringing this miscarriage of justice to prominence in the form of her novel.

It is no surprise to discover that the book was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Costa Novel Award in 2021, as well as the Wales Book of the Year Award in 2022.

I can foresee myself re-reading this book again in the future, and I most definitely want to read other titles from Ms. Mohamed.

I thoroughly recommend that you read this book and hope that you enjoy the reading experience as much as I did.

ISBN: 978 0241466957

Publisher:  Viking

Formats:  e-book, audio and paperback

No. of Pages:  384 (paperback)

Purchase from Bookshop.org

About the Author:

Nadifa Mohamed was born in Hargeisa (now in the Republic of Somaliland) in 1981 and moved as a child to England in 1986, staying permanently when war broke out in Somalia.

She lives in London and her first novel, Black Mamba Boy, based on her father's memories of his travels in the 1930s, was published in 2010. It was longlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction and the Dylan Thomas Prize and shortlisted for the John Llewellyn-Rhys Memorial Prize and the Guardian First Book Award. It won the 2010 Betty Trask Prize.

(author photo and bio. info. courtesy of GoodReads)

A Room Made of Leaves by Kate Grenville - #BookReview

"My Dear Son, James, has given me a task for my last years, or months, or whatever time I have left beyond the many years I have lived so far. It is to compile an account called 'The History of the Macarthurs of Camden Park.' Meaning myself and my late husband John Macarthur. He was barely cold in his grave when they began lauding him as a hero, even the ones who loathed him in life."

It is 1788. Twenty-one-year-old Elizabeth is hungry for life but, as the ward of a Devon clergyman, knows she has few prospects. When proud, scarred soldier, John Macarthur, promises her the earth one midsummer’s night, she believes him.

But Elizabeth soon realises she has made a terrible mistake. Her new husband is reckless, tormented, driven by some dark rage at the world. He tells her he is to take up a position as Lieutenant in a New South Wales penal colony and she has no choice but to go. Sailing for six months to the far side of the globe with a child growing inside her, she arrives to find Sydney Town a brutal, dusty, hungry place of makeshift shelters, failing crops, scheming and rumours. 

All her life she has learned to be obliging, to fold herself up small. Now, in the vast landscapes of an unknown continent, Elizabeth has to discover a strength she never imagined, and passions she could never express. 

***

I loved every word of this book. It was beautifully written and when I got to the end I could have happily gone straight back to the beginning and started it all over again.

The book is narrated by Elizabeth, the wife of John Macarthur, and is inspired by her letters to family and friends in England. Ms. Grenville has taken those documents and given Elizabeth a voice of her own from a time when the voice of women was very rarely heard. This is the memoir that Elizabeth never wrote but the author has such acute understanding of what Elizabeth's life was probably like that this reads as an extremely believable account.

The author's description of New South Wales was highly evocative and she describes the brutality towards the indigenous population and the transported convicts with perceptive skill. This is a brilliantly imagined account, of the lives of the first settlers in Australia.

This is the first book I have read by Kate Grenville and it certainly will not be my last. Thankfully, she has already published several novels for me to choose from. I highly recommend this book. I would be surprised if it does not make it into my Top 2020 Best Books at the end of this year.

Have you read anything by this author? Which of her novels do you suggest I read next?

ISBN: 9781838851231

Publisher: Canongate Books

About the Author

Kate Grenville is one of Australia's best-known authors. She's published eight books of fiction and four books about the writing process. Her best-known works are the international best-seller The Secret River, The Idea of Perfection, The Lieutenant and Lilian's Story. 

 Her novels have won many awards both in Australia and the UK, several have been made into major feature films, and all have been translated into European and Asian languages.

Leaving Everything Most Loved by Jacqueline Winspear - #BookReview - Maisie Dobbs #10

"Maisie Dobbs manoeuvred her MG 14/28 Tourer into a place outside the bell-shaped frontage of the grand country house. She turned off the engine but remained seated. She needed time to consider her reason for coming to this place before she relinquished the security of her motor car and made her way towards the heavy oak door."

London, 1933. Two months after Usha Pramal is found murdered in a South London canal, her brother turns to Maisie Dobbs to find the truth about her death, as Scotland Yard have failed to conduct a proper investigation.

Before her murder, Usha was staying at an ayah's hostel, a refuge for Indian women whose British employers had turned them out. But nothing is as it seems and soon another Indian woman is killed before she can speak out. As Maisie is pulled deeper into an unfamiliar yet alluring subculture, her investigation becomes clouded by the unfinished business of a previous case. And at the same time her lover, James Compton, gives her an ultimatum she cannot ignore.

***

I really like the Maisie Dobbs books and this is number ten in the series. Of course, for those of you who follow my blog regularly, you will already know that I have read them all in order, as my anally retentive mind insists upon it. However, I have not reviewed them all but my reviews of Maisie Dobbs, (#1) Pardonable Lies, (#3) and Messenger of Truth (#4) can all be accessed by clicking on the title links. Although it is not entirely neccessary to read them in order I really do recommend starting with, Maisie Dobbs, the first in the series as it provides so much information of Maisie's background.

I have become rather fond of Maisie over the years. She is a bit like having a friend who I am continually drawn back to but who can be a little irritating at times. She has a tendency towards arrogance, and will sometimes bulldoze herself over the feelings of others. However, I still find her a charming and captivating character.

In this particular novel, Ms. Winspear takes up the themes of prejudice, immigration and love and combines them into one delightful story. There are ample twists and turns that are appropriately placed and paced throughout the book.

To date there are fifteen books in this series so I have at least five more to look forward to.

ISBN: 978 0749014599

Publisher: Allison & Busby

About the author:

Jacqueline Winspear was born and raised in the county of Kent, England. Following higher education at the University of London’s Institute of Education, Jacqueline worked in academic publishing, in higher education and in marketing communications in the UK.

She emigrated to the United States in 1990, and while working in business and as a personal / professional coach, Jacqueline embarked upon a life-long dream to be a writer.

A regular contributor to journals covering international education, Jacqueline has published articles in women's magazines and has also recorded her essays for KQED radio in San Francisco. She currently divides her time between Ojai and the San Francisco Bay Area and is a regular visitor to the United Kingdom and Europe.

Jacqueline is the author of the New York Times bestsellers A Lesson in Secrets, The Mapping of Love and Death, Among the Mad, and An Incomplete Revenge, and other nationally bestselling Maisie Dobbs novels. She has won numerous awards for her work, including the Agatha, Alex,and Macavity awards for the first book in the series, Maisie Dobbs, which was also nominated for the Edgar Award for best novel and was a New York Times Notable Book.