Book
The Fortune Men (2021) by Nadifa Mohamed: the story of Mahmood Mattan
The Fortune Men is a 2021 novel by the Somali-British writer Nadifa Mohamed about Mahmood Hussein Mattan, a Somali seaman wrongly convicted of a 1952 murder in Cardiff and hanged; his conviction was quashed in 1998. It was shortlisted for the 2021 Booker Prize and won Wales Book of the Year in 2022.
The Fortune Men
- Author
- Nadifa Mohamed
- Year
- 2021
- Publisher
- Viking
- Language
- English
- Sources
- 2 sources
The book
The Fortune Men is the third novel by Nadifa Mohamed, published by Viking (Penguin) in the UK on 27 May 2021 (The Fortune Men, Wikipedia).
The true story behind it
The novel is based on the case of Mahmood Hussein Mattan, a Somali former merchant seaman living in Butetown (Tiger Bay), Cardiff. He was convicted of the murder of the shopkeeper Lily Volpert on 6 March 1952 and hanged; he was the last person hanged at Cardiff prison. In 1998 the Court of Appeal quashed his conviction after it was shown that evidence had been falsified and manipulated (Wikipedia). In the novel the victim is renamed Violet Volacki.
Nadifa Mohamed's father, also from Somaliland, had met Mattan when both lived in Hull (Wikipedia). The history of Somali seamen in Wales is on Somali seamen and early migrants and Cardiff.
How it was received
- Shortlisted for the 2021 Booker Prize (Wikipedia).
- Won the Rhys Davies Trust Fiction Award, the People's Choice Award and the overall Wales Book of the Year in 2022 (Wikipedia).
- In The Guardian, Ashish Ghadiali wrote that it "confirms her as a literary star of her generation", and Michael Donkor praised it for "humanising" Mattan and for writing about his faith in "delicate and perspicacious prose" (Wikipedia, citing The Guardian).
- In the Financial Times, Catherine Taylor called it "a novel on fire, a restitution of justice in prose" (Wikipedia, citing the Financial Times).
Where to read it
Related pages
Sources
- The Fortune Men, Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
- WorldCat · search.worldcat.org
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Where this matters
Same era
- Australia18,401 people of Somali ancestry and 8,101 born in Somalia lived in Australia at the 2021 Census, more than half in Victoria. History, work, issues.
- Birmingham (Somali diaspora)About 17,000 to 21,600 Somalis live in Birmingham (Census 2021), mostly in Nechells, Newtown, Small Heath and Alum Rock. History, work, health and ties home.
- Bristol (Somali diaspora)9,167 people in Bristol identified as Somali or Somalilander in Census 2021, the city's largest minority group. Where they live, work, housing, leaders and ties home.
- Calgary, Alberta, Canada2,845 people of Somali origin lived in Calgary at the 2021 Census, plus 890 in Brooks. How they came, who serves them and what they face.
- Denmark (Somali diaspora)21,885 people of Somali origin lived in Denmark in 2026, half born there. Numbers, history, work, permit reviews, and ties home.
- DjiboutiAbout 13,900 refugees from Somalia live in Djibouti (Aug 2026): numbers since 1990, Ali Addeh, Holl-Holl, the 2017 refugee law, Arta 2000 and 2025 returns.
More by this author
- Black Mamba Boy (2010) by Nadifa Mohamed: a Somali boy's journey, 1935 to 1947Nadifa Mohamed's Black Mamba Boy (2010): Jama's journey from Aden to Wales, based on her father's life, the title's story, and its prizes.
- 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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