6/28/2023 0 Comments Nadifa mohamed the fortune men![]() Mahmood Mattan was born in what was then British Somaliland in 1923 and landed in Cardiff after years traveling the world with the merchant navy. “I wanted to meet as many people connected to the case as possible, and that was a massive benefit to me because all these small stories, the texture of these people’s lives, only came alive once I met the living people around them,” says Mohamed. She met relatives of each of the families in the book, among them Mattan’s granddaughter, a Volpert family member, and the son of one of Mattan’s friends, Berlin. Mohamed conducted years of research into Mattan’s life through archives, newsreels, and transcripts from his court case as well as conversations with people who knew him. ![]() The book was published in the United States on December 14 by Knopf. Her novel was shortlisted for the Booker Prize this year, and it’s not hard to see why: It’s a riveting tale in which Mohamed brings to life a 1950s port city and the injustice that occurred there. Mattan’s story became a 17-year preoccupation for Mohamed after reading a news story on the case. ![]() In her third book, The Fortune Men, Nadifa Mohamed re-creates the life of Mahmood Mattan, a Somali seaman wrongfully convicted of the 1952 murder of Lily Volpert in Cardiff, Wales. ![]()
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