Black Mamba Boy - Hardcover

Mohamed, Nadifa

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0374114196 ISBN 13: 9780374114190

Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux, 2010

Synopsis

Yemen, 1935. Jama is a “market boy,” a half-feral child scavenging with his friends in the dusty streets of a great seaport. For Jama, life is a thrilling carnival, at least when he can fill his belly. When his mother—alternately raging and loving—dies young, she leaves him only an amulet stuffed with one hundred rupees. Jama decides to spend her life’s meager savings on a search for his never-seen father; the rumors that travel along clan lines report that he is a driver for the British somewhere in the north. So begins Jama’s extraordinary journey of more than a thousand miles north all the way to Egypt, by camel, by truck, by train, but mostly on foot. He slings himself from one perilous city to another, fiercely enjoying life on the road and relying on his vast clan network to shelter him and point the way to his father, who always seems just a day or two out of reach.

In his travels, Jama will witness scenes of great humanity and brutality; he will be caught up in the indifferent, grinding machine of war; he will crisscross the Red Sea in search of working papers and a ship. Bursting with life and a rough joyfulness, Black Mamba Boy is debut novelist Nadifa Mohamed’s vibrant, moving celebration of her family’s own history.

About this title

Review:

‘Loved Black Mamba Boy. Utterly compelling, an assured debut. An incredible insight into a slice of recent African history that is so rarely given light’
Alex Wheatle, award-winning author of East of Acre Lane and Brixton Rock

Amazon Vine reviews:

‘A great read, colourful and powerful’

‘One of the most wonderful things I have ever read...I was held spellbound by this book’

‘Rich description and a fascinating story’

‘Nadifa Mohamed's writing is emotional and evocative and as well as lyrical landscape descriptions or relationship revelations she does not flinch from the harrowing reality of a cruelly chaotic part of the world. This is a 5-star book deserving similar acclaim and success to “The Kite Runner”’

From the Back Cover:

Yemen, 1935. Jama is a half-feral child scavenging with his friends in the dusty streets of a great seaport. For Jama, life is a carnival, at least when he can fill his belly. When his mother dies young, she leaves him only an amulet stuffed with one hundred rupees. Jama decides to spend her life's meager savings to search for his missing father, rumored to be a driver for the British in the north. So begins Jama's extraordinary journey of more than a thousand miles to Egypt. He slings himself from one perilous city to another, fiercely enjoying life on the road and relying on his vast clan network to shelter him and point the way to his father, who always seems just out of reach. In his travels, Jama will witness scenes of great humanity and brutality; he will be caught up in the indifferent, grinding machine of war; he will crisscross the Red Sea in search of working papers and a ship.

About this edition

• Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0374114196
• ISBN 13: 9780374114190
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288