A writer of great humanity and intelligence. Nadifa Mohamed deeply understands how lives are shaped both by the grand sweep of history and the intimate encounters of human beings — Kamila Shamsie, author of Home Fire

Chilling and utterly compelling, The Fortune Men shines an essential light on a much-neglected period of our national life — Sathnam Sanghera, author of Empireland

The Fortune Men describes how innocence is forced to justify itself before gross injustice. A novel of tremendous power, compassion and subtlety, it feels unsettlingly timely — Pankaj Mishra

In her determined, nuanced and compassionate exposure of injustice, Mohamed gives the terrible story of Mattan’s life and death meaning and dignity ― Guardian

The Fortune Men confirms Mohamed as a literary star of her generation. When Mohamed’s prose – simple and full of soul – illuminated him, Mahmood emerges as a beacon of humour, hope and endurance ― Observer

Based on real events, Mohamed’s novel is panoramic in its scope and rich in period atmosphere, vividly tracing the desperate livers of the victim and the accused ― Mail on Sunday

The Fortune Men is a novel on fire, a restitution of justice in prose ― FT

The Fortune Men is that rare novel that breaks your heart and, in so doing, gives you life. Nadifa Mohamed is a revelation – she writes with the fierce compassionate lightning of a truth-teller, lays bare the ghastly colonial condition that afflicts so many of us, where truth cannot overcome injustice. If a novel can be an avenger then The Fortune Men is the one we’ve all been waiting for — Junot Diaz

Mohamed is . . . intent on expanding her world, listing its teeming varieties and presenting a wealth of character and language ― TLS

Evocative and enlightening ― New Statesman

A moving work ― The Week, Novel of the Week

A moving and captivating tale of survival and hope in a war-torn country, and confirms Mohamed’s stature as one of Britain’s best young novelists ― Stylist on The Orchard of Lost Souls

It’s unbearably wrenching . . . Mohamed makes the outrage at the book’s heart blazingly unignorable by inhabiting Mattan’s point of view, a bold endeavour pulled off to powerful effect. Passages from the barbaric climax are still echoing in my head, even as I type ― Daily Mail

Mixing startling lyricism and sheer brutality, this is a significant, affecting book ― Guardian, on Black Mamba Boy

Just as Half of a Yellow Sun drew out the little documented dramas of the Biafran war, Mohamed describes an East Africa under Mussolini’s rule . . . such an accomplished first novel ― Independent, on Black Mamba Boy

A first novel of elegance and beauty… a stunning debut ― The Times, on Black Mamba Boy

A haunting and intimate portrait of the lives of women in war-torn Somalia ― New York Journal of Books, on The Orchard of Lost Souls

With the unadorned language of a wise, clear-eyed observer, Nadifa Mohamed has spun an unforgettable tale ― Taiye Selasi, on The Orchard of Lost Souls

Nadifa Mohamed was born in 1981 in Hargeisa, Somaliland. At the age of four she moved with her family to London. She is the author of Black Mamba Boy, The Orchard of Lost Souls and, most recently, The Fortune Men, which is currently longlisted for the 2021 Booker Prize. She has received both The Betty Trask Award and the Somerset Maugham Award, as well as numerous other prize nominations, for her fiction. She was named as one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists in 2013. She contributes regularly to the Guardian and the BBC.