The Fortune Men by Nadifa Mohamed, Read by Hugh Quarshie
A Brilliantly Reimagined Story
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Actor Hugh Quarshie is a gifted mimic, and he reads with a measured pace that provides this sad historical novel with a sense of inevitably. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile contributor Alan Minskoff discuss Quarshie’s skill narrating Nadifa Mohamed’s The Fortune Men, which is based on real events in Cardiff, Wales, in 1952. Quarshie’s Somali-inflected English and his reading of Arabic offer the protagonist, Mahmood Mattan, verisimilitude, and he does Welsh, Jamaican, and English accents well, placing the listener inside the characters’ minds. The performance gives dignity to the falsely accused protagonist.
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This episode of Behind the Mic is sponsored by the audiobook editions of Sherryl Woods’s Sweet Magnolias series. With the new season available to watch now on Netflix, now is the time to listen to the entire Sweet Magnolias audiobook series, all brought to you by Dreamscape Media. For more information about Sweet Magnolias, please visit www.Dreamscapepublishing.com
