Tag: literary fiction

#BookReview The Fortune Men by Nadifa Mohamed @VikingBooksUK

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The Fortune MenAbout the Book

The story of a murder, a miscarriage of justice, and a man too innocent for his times . . .

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, petty criminal. He is a smooth-talker with rakish charm and an eye for a good game. He is many things, but he is not a murderer.

So when a shopkeeper is brutally killed and all eyes fall on him, Mahmood isn’t too worried. Since his Welsh wife Laura kicked him out for racking up debts he has wandered the streets more often, and there are witnesses who allegedly saw him enter the shop that night. But Mahmood has escaped worse scrapes, and he is innocent in this country where justice is served. Love lends him immunity too: the fierce love of Laura, who forgives his gambling in a heartbeat, and his children. It is only in the run-up to the trial, as the prospect of returning home dwindles, that it will dawn on Mahmood that he is in a fight for his life – against conspiracy, prejudice and cruelty – and that the truth may not be enough to save him.

Format: Hardcover (372 pages)    Publisher: Viking
Publication date: 27th May 2021 Genre: Historical Fiction

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My Review

Shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2021, The Fortune Men is a fictionalized account of a true story of a miscarriage of justice.

Set in Cardiff in 1952, the author really conjures up the melting pot that is the Tiger Bay area of the city, inhabited by people from different cultures – Somali, Jamaican, India – and religions – Jewish, Hindu, Muslim.  However, many of its inhabitants live a hand-to-mouth existence on the margins of society: ‘the unfortunate, distant-eyed flotsam of Cardiff, their quiet lives sustained by day wages and borrowed rations’.  Non-whites face racial discrimination, especially from the police who consider them guilty until proven innocent. When Mahmood is arrested, he initially believes it is for theft. When he discovers he is suspected of the murder of a local woman, he protests his innocence. ‘He won’t let them use him as the rag they soak up spilt blood with’.

The book also explores the feelings of Diana, the sister of the murdered woman. As well as shock and a desire for justice, Diana feels a sense of guilt given the murder took place barely feet away, albeit in another section of the house that served as a shop. The loss of her sister causes her to reflect on other losses in her life and her wartime experiences.

As Mahmood awaits trial in prison, the reader gets an insight into his childhood in Somalia, his religious education and the country’s history which is one of occupation by the British and Italians. We learn how Mahmood, seeking a new and better life, became a stoker on board cargo ships travelling the world, eventually leading him to Cardiff and a meeting with the young woman, Laura, who would eventually become his wife and the mother of his children. Despite the difficulties of an interracial marriage, theirs is a deep and loving relationship. As Laura tells Mahmood at the end of the book, in circumstances which will surely tug at your heartstrings, ‘You have been the best thing to happen in my life, you know that’.

I loved the way the author explored the character of Mahmood who, by his own admission, has not led the life of a saint. During his trial he is incredulous at the picture painted of him by the police and prosecution witnesses. ‘They are blind to Mahmood Hussein Mattan and all his real manifestations: the tireless stoker, the poker shark, the elegant wanderer, the love-starved husband, the soft-hearted father.’ The situation he finds himself in doesn’t seem real. ‘His life was, is, one long film with mobs of extras and exotic, expensive sets’. The verdict, when it comes, is a foregone conclusion but is no less upsetting for that. In the weeks and months that follow, which are described in unflinching detail, Mahmood hopes against hope for a different outcome. It’s one he is powerless to influence, leading him to ponder on the gulf that exists between him and the people who have the power to decide his destiny. His thoughts even turn to the Queen: ‘You rich, I’m poor, you white, I’m black, you Christian, I’m Muslim, you English, I’m Somali, you’re loved, I’m despised’.

There are many features of the book I enjoyed, such as the chapter numbers also being shown in Somali, the occasional use of vernacular words and phrases (although a glossary would have been useful) and the section of the book covering Mahmood’s trial which takes the form of a Q&A mimicking a transcript. But perhaps my favourite thing was the detailed lists the author includes from time to time. For example, this from near the beginning of the book listing the various roles of the migrant workers who have ended up in Tiger Bay: ‘dockers, talleymen, kickers, stevedores, winch men, hatch men, samplers, grain porters, timber porters, tackle men, yard masters, teamers, dock watchmen, needle men, ferrymen, shunters, pilots, tugboatmen, foyboatmen, freshwater men, blacksmiths, jetty clerks, warehousemen, measurers, weighers, dredgermen, lumpers, launch men, lightermen, crane drivers, coal trimmers…stokers.’  Yes, I don’t know what a lot of them do either!

The final chapter of The Fortune Men made me cry; the epilogue made me angry. I think the book thoroughly deserves its place on the Booker Prize shortlist and I would love to see it win. You can learn more about the case and the author’s research for the book in this article on the BBC website.

In three words: Compelling, intense, chilling

Try something similar: This Mortal Boy by Fiona Kidman

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nadifa_mohamedAbout the Author

Nadifa Mohamed was born in Hargeisa, Somaliland in 1981 and moved to Britain at the age of four. Her first novel, Black Mamba Boy, won the 2010 Betty Trask Prize; it was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award, the John Llewellyn-Rhys Memorial Prize, the Dylan Thomas Prize and the PEN Open Book Award. Her second novel, Orchard of Lost Souls, won a Somerset Maugham Award and Prix Albert Bernard. Nadifa Mohamed was selected for the Granta Best of Young British Novelists in 2013, and is Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.  She lives in London.

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#BookReview Snow Country by Sebastian Faulks @HutchHeinemann

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Snow CountryAbout the Book

1914: Young Anton Heideck has arrived in Vienna, eager to make his name as a journalist. While working part-time as a private tutor, he encounters Delphine, a woman who mixes startling candour with deep reserve. Entranced by the light of first love, Anton feels himself blessed. Until his country declares war on hers.

1927: For Lena, life with a drunken mother in a small town has been impoverished and cold. She is convinced she can amount to nothing until a young lawyer, Rudolf Plischke, spirits her away to Vienna. But the capital proves unforgiving. Lena leaves her metropolitan dream behind to take a menial job at the snow-bound sanatorium, the Schloss Seeblick.

1933: Still struggling to come terms with the loss of so many friends on the Eastern Front, Anton, now an established writer, is commissioned by a magazine to visit the mysterious Schloss Seeblick. In this place of healing, on the banks of a silvery lake, where the depths of human suffering and the chances of redemption are explored, two people will see each other as if for the first time.

Format: eARC (368 pages)                     Publisher: Hutchinson
Publication date: 2nd September 2021 Genre: Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction

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My Review

Although Snow Country is the second book in a planned trilogy – the first of which was Human Traces published in 2005 – it can be read as a standalone.

Opening with a dramatic prologue that some readers may find too graphic for their taste, the book explores some profound psychological and moral issues through events in the lives of its principal characters – Anton Heideck, Lena Fontana and, to a lesser extent, Rudolf Plischke.

The first part of the book featuring Anton Heideck provides a vivid picture of pre-First World War Vienna with its coffee houses, opera houses and concert halls. Unfortunately, most of the delights of the city are out of the reach of young Anton as he tries to scrape a living as a private tutor and journalist. Anton begins an intense relationship with the enigmatic Delphine, a young woman hired as a companion and French tutor to a Viennese family.

As Anton becomes more successful, assignments to Paris and Moscow follow as well as a trip to report on the US-led construction of the Panama Canal. The latter has resonance for citizens of France because of the earlier involvement of Ferdinand de Lesseps, for a time a national hero because of his role in the construction of the Suez Canal. Unfortunately, his attempts to build a sea-level canal across the isthmus of Panama ended in failure with investors in the project losing everything. However, the outbreak of the First World War has momentous consequences for Anton, leaving emotional scars and unanswered questions.

Lena’s story is one of a young girl growing up with few advantages in life, except perhaps that her alcoholic mother has chosen to raise her rather than give her up for adoption like so many of Lena’s half-sisters and brothers, the result of her mother’s brief couplings with various men. Even learning the identity of her father leaves Lena feeling abandoned and her instinctive self-expression and unconventional nature sets her apart from others. Gradually she transforms herself from illiterate school girl to independent young woman although not without moments of desperation and emotional disappointment along the way, including a relationship with idealistic young lawyer, Rudolf Plischke.

Although the book seems to be at least two different stories with little connection between them, chance – or perhaps, fate – sees Anton, Lena and Rudolf arrive at the sanatorium, Schloss Seeblick. Lena is employed there as a servant, and Anton and Rudolf are there for professional reasons. Lena is the connection between the two men, although they are unaware of this. For Lena and Rudolf their meeting is an opportunity to resolve some unfinished business between them.

Initially Anton’s interest in the sanatorium is purely professional, having been commissioned to write an article about it. He learns more about the sanatorium and the philosophy behind its treatments through his conversations with head therapist Martha Midwinter. These include discussions about the theories of Freud and others, a lot of which I’ll freely admit went over my head. Whilst studying the papers in the sanatorium’s archives for his article, Anton comes across a letter whose contents resonate with him: ‘The human mind has evolved in a way that makes it unable to deal with the pain of its own existence. No other creature is like this.’ Anton begins to wonder if Schloss Seeblick might offer him a way to resolve his own mental torment, caused by a combination of the unresolved issues in his personal life and his experiences as a soldier in the First World War. Through his subsequent sessions with Martha, we begin to learn more about Anton’s wartime experiences and understand their lasting impact on him, including what we would today recognize as symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.

The observation that ‘life is full of missed connections, of bad timing’ is an apt description of the book and I enjoyed Snow Country, especially Lena’s story, although I was left with the feeling that I wasn’t quite clever enough to appreciate everything the author was seeking to explore in the book. However, I guess it’s no bad thing for a book to leave you with the sense there’s more to the world, and to other people, than you think you know.

My thanks to Hutchinson for my advance review copy via NetGalley. Sebastian Faulks will be appearing at Henley Literary Festival on 2nd October to talk about Snow Country. The event is also being live-streamed and tickets are still available at the time of writing.

In three words: Profound, complex, moving

Try something similar: The Ghost Road by Pat Barker or The Complete Memoirs of George Sherston by Siegfried Sassoon

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Sebastian FaulksAbout the Author

Sebastian Faulks was born in 1953, and grew up in Newbury, the son of a judge and a repertory actress. He attended Wellington College and studied at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, although he didn’t enjoy attending either institution. Cambridge in the 70s was still quite male-dominated, and he says that you had to cycle about 5 miles to meet a girl. He was the first literary editor of The Independent, and then went on to become deputy editor of The Sunday Independent. Sebastian Faulks was awarded the CBE in 2002. He and his family live in London. (Photo/bio credit: Goodreads author page)

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