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the_bitchy_booker's review against another edition
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
We should none of us be surprised that colonial British justice isn't as just to its colonized peoples as it is swift to suspect those who aren't as White as the Queen.
This novel is a fictionalized account of the real murder of a Jewish woman in Cardiff, and the miscarriage of justice that followed.
Mahmood, a Somalian living in Britain, a husband and the father of three young boys, known for petty crimes such as theft (and disliked by a good number of people) catches the blame as the police find a shocking number of witnesses who say they saw him on the street near the crime that night. His own lawyer calls him a 'semi-civilized savage' in court.
The women who caught a glimpse of the murderer in the actual place it happened said it was not Mahmood. Two of the Crown witnesses gave conflicting accounts of where he was when the murder happened. One of them tried to bribe his mother in law to give the same false evidence so that they could split the reward money tied to a conviction. There was not one shred of physical evidence linking him to the crime.
<Spoiler> Nevertheless, he is found guilty and sentenced to death, and every appeal is denied. The end of the novel contains a postscript that it took decades for his family to have the verdict overturned. It shadowed all their lives, and the murder was never solved.
Because Mahmood is illiterate and speaks broken English, people who take the time to really talk to him, including me if I'm being honest, are surprised by how smart he is. The novel brilliantly juxtaposes his imperfect speech, and how that makes you think about who he is, with the depth and lyricism of his inner thoughts.
We are taken along as he feels optimism, grief, betrayal, anger, peace, a kind of spiritual meaning, and finally abject fear in the face of what's happening to him. The end of the novel is truly difficult to read; the suddenness with which it all ends mirroring the drop at the end of the hangman's noose which, despite all the reflecting he has done, was inexorably beside him from the moment he was pronounced guilty, secreted behind a hidden door, always waiting and never more than a few paces away.
Could this novel win the Booker? It's timely fictionalized history, so maybe! (Please don't spoil me I haven't looked up the winner yet).
TW for execution by hanging, murder, passing reference to rape.
This novel is a fictionalized account of the real murder of a Jewish woman in Cardiff, and the miscarriage of justice that followed.
Mahmood, a Somalian living in Britain, a husband and the father of three young boys, known for petty crimes such as theft (and disliked by a good number of people) catches the blame as the police find a shocking number of witnesses who say they saw him on the street near the crime that night. His own lawyer calls him a 'semi-civilized savage' in court.
The women who caught a glimpse of the murderer in the actual place it happened said it was not Mahmood. Two of the Crown witnesses gave conflicting accounts of where he was when the murder happened. One of them tried to bribe his mother in law to give the same false evidence so that they could split the reward money tied to a conviction. There was not one shred of physical evidence linking him to the crime.
<Spoiler> Nevertheless, he is found guilty and sentenced to death, and every appeal is denied. The end of the novel contains a postscript that it took decades for his family to have the verdict overturned. It shadowed all their lives, and the murder was never solved.
Because Mahmood is illiterate and speaks broken English, people who take the time to really talk to him, including me if I'm being honest, are surprised by how smart he is. The novel brilliantly juxtaposes his imperfect speech, and how that makes you think about who he is, with the depth and lyricism of his inner thoughts.
We are taken along as he feels optimism, grief, betrayal, anger, peace, a kind of spiritual meaning, and finally abject fear in the face of what's happening to him. The end of the novel is truly difficult to read; the suddenness with which it all ends mirroring the drop at the end of the hangman's noose which, despite all the reflecting he has done, was inexorably beside him from the moment he was pronounced guilty, secreted behind a hidden door, always waiting and never more than a few paces away.
Could this novel win the Booker? It's timely fictionalized history, so maybe! (Please don't spoil me I haven't looked up the winner yet).
TW for execution by hanging, murder, passing reference to rape.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death and Murder
Minor: Rape
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