Book
Black Mamba Boy (2010) by Nadifa Mohamed: a Somali boy's journey, 1935 to 1947
Black Mamba Boy is the first novel by Nadifa Mohamed, published by HarperCollins in 2010. Based on her father's life, it follows Jama, a boy who leaves Aden in 1935 after his mother dies and travels through Sudan, Egypt, Palestine and the Mediterranean to Wales by 1947. It won the Betty Trask Award and was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award.
Black Mamba Boy
- Author
- Nadifa Mohamed
- Year
- 2010
- Publisher
- HarperCollins
- Language
- English
- Sources
- 3 sources
The book
Black Mamba Boy is the first novel by Nadifa Mohamed. It was published by HarperCollins in the UK in 2010 and by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in the United States (Black Mamba Boy, Wikipedia). It is a historical novel based on the life of the author's father in the 1930s and 1940s (Wikipedia).
The story
The main character, Jama, is a boy living in Aden, in Yemen, in 1935. When his mother Ambaro dies, he sets out to find his father. His journey takes him through Sudan, Egypt and Palestine, across the Mediterranean, and ends at Port Talbot in Wales in 1947, and he settles in Britain (Wikipedia).
The title
The title comes from a family story the author has told: her grandmother, while pregnant, was separated from her caravan, and a black mamba crept over her belly and slid away without harming her. She took it as a sign that the child was protected (Wikipedia).
How it was received
- Won the 2010 Betty Trask Award for a first novel (Wikipedia).
- Shortlisted for the 2010 Guardian First Book Award, the 2010 Dylan Thomas Prize and the 2010 John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, and longlisted for the 2010 Orange Prize for Fiction (Wikipedia).
- Reviewed in The Independent by Arifa Akbar in 2010 (Wikipedia, references).
Her next novel, The Orchard of Lost Souls (2013), is set in Hargeysa in 1987 to 1988, and her third, The Fortune Men (2021), in Cardiff in 1952.
Where to read it
- Lending copy: Internet Archive
- In a library: WorldCat
Related pages
Sources
- Black Mamba Boy, Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
- Internet Archive · archive.org
- WorldCat · search.worldcat.org
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Where this matters
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More by this author
- The Fortune Men (2021) by Nadifa Mohamed: the story of Mahmood MattanNadifa Mohamed's The Fortune Men (2021): the true story of Mahmood Mattan, hanged in Cardiff in 1952 and cleared in 1998; Booker shortlist and reviews.
- The Orchard of Lost Souls (2013) by Nadifa Mohamed: three women in Hargeysa, 1987Nadifa Mohamed's The Orchard of Lost Souls (2013): Deqo, Kawsar and Filsan in Hargeysa in 1987 to 1988, its setting, and how reviewers received it.
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