Black Mamba Boy - by Nadifa Mohamed (Paperback)

About the Book

"Yemen, 1935. Jama is a "Market Boy," a half-feral child scavenging with his friends in the dusty streets of a great seaport. For him, life is a thrilling carnival, at least when he can fill his belly. But when his mother dies far too young, leaving him an amulet stuffed with just one hundred rupees, Jama decides to embark on a search for his never-seen father. So begins Jama's extraordinary thousand-mile journey on foot across an Africa torn asunder by the horrors of World War II and its painful wake."--Page 4 of cover.

Book 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.

Review Quotes

"Ambitious . . . [a] phenomenal fast-forward story. . . . The novel takes on a Job-like tenor." --The New York Times Book Review

"A stunning first novel . . . This powerful novel is both a bracing lesson in World War II history and a brutal description of individual survival." --Boston Globe

"An engrossing debut . . . filled with petty cruelties and hardship, but it also overflows with life . . . Black Mamba Boy tells an important story in an engaging fashion--one with much relevance to today's world." --Bookpage

About the Author

Nadifa Mohamed was born in Hargeisa, Somalia, in 1981 to a merchant marine father and a mother from a politically active family, and was trapped in exile when civil war erupted. She studied history and politics at Oxford, and has worked as a film researcher and scriptwriter.