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
Nadifa Mohamed Ordre des livres (chronologique)
Nadifa Mohamed crée des récits qui explorent la tapisserie complexe des relations humaines et l'impact profond des événements historiques sur la vie des individus. Sa prose se caractérise par son lyrisme et une profonde compréhension de la psyché humaine, explorant les thèmes de l'identité, de la migration et de la recherche d'un foyer dans un monde dynamique et souvent turbulent. La voix distinctive de Mohamed offre des aperçus pénétrants, maintenant un engagement indéfectible envers l'authenticité de ses personnages et de leurs contextes.
The Orchard of Lost Souls
- 352pages
- 13 heures de lecture
From one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists, a stunning novel illuminating Somalia's tragic civil war It is 1987 and Hargeisa waits. Whispers of revolution travel on the dry winds, but still the dictatorship remains secure. Soon, through the eyes of three women, we will see Somalia fall. Nine-year-old Deqo has left the vast refugee camp where she was born, lured to the city by the promise of her first pair of shoes. Kawsar, a solitary widow, is trapped in her little house with its garden clawed from the desert, confined to her bed after a savage beating in the local police station. Filsan, a young female soldier, has moved from Mogadishu to suppress the rebellion growing in the north. As the country is unraveled by a civil war that will shock the world, the fates of these three women are twisted irrevocably together. Nadifa Mohamed was born in Hargeisa and was exiled before the outbreak of war. In The Orchard of Lost Souls, she returns to Hargeisa in her imagination. Intimate, frank, brimming with beauty and fierce love, this novel is an unforgettable account of ordinary lives lived in extraordinary times. Chosen as one of the 15 Best Works of Fiction by Black Authors in 2014 by The Root
Black Mamba Boy
- 288pages
- 11 heures de lecture
Jama is a half-feral child scavenging in the streets of a great seaport. After his mother dies, Jama decides to search for his never-seen father. So begins Jama's extraordinary journey of more than a thousand miles north all the way to Egypt.