Book Review
Black Mamba Boy (2010)
by Nadifa Mohamed
British-Somali author Nadifa Mohamed made the 2021 Booker Longlist with her yet unreleased The Fortune Men. Since I can't read The Fortune Men yet, I settled for reading Black Mamba Boy, her 2010 debut bildungsroman/roman a clef which fictionalizes the extraordinary childhood and young adulthood of a character based on her father. There is nothing particularly unusual about the plot points in Black Mamba- young Somali boy seeks his place in the world with little help from fate, but the setting- beginning in pre-World War II Yemen before switching to the horn of Africa during World War II and Egypt and Great Britain after World War II, is breathtaking.
But again, the plot itself- the incidents, the Oliver Twist-esque suffering, is a bit much and perhaps it explains why Black Mamba Boy didn't take off. Looking forward to reading The Fortune Men when it comes out!
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