This Mortal Boy

by Fiona Kidman

Winner of The Ockham New Zealand Book Awards 2019

Winner of the Ngaio Marsh Crime Writing Awards 2019

Winner of the New Zealand Booklovers Prize for Fiction 2019
Winner of the NZ Heritage Book Awards 2018

Longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Awards 2020

'Magnetic' New York Times

'It's an amazing novel, this. It's compelling' Val McDermid

 

The offender is not one of ours. It is unfortunate that we got this undesirable from his homeland.

Auckland, October 1955. If young Paddy Black sings to himself he can almost see himself back home in Belfast. Yet, less than two years after sailing across the globe in search of a better life, here he stands in a prison cell awaiting trial for murder. He pulled a knife at the jukebox that night, but should his actions lead him to the gallows? As his desperate mother waits on, Paddy must face a judge and jury unlikely to favour an outsider, as a wave of moral panic sweeps the island nation.

Fiona Kidman’s powerful novel explores the controversial topic of the death penalty with characteristic empathy and a probing eye for injustice.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Crime, Historical, Book Club, Audiobook, Literary Fiction

288 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2018

About the author

Fiona Kidman is a leading contemporary novelist, short story writer and poet. Much of her fiction is focused on how outsiders navigate their way in narrowly conformist society. She has published a large and exciting range of fiction and poetry, and has worked as a librarian, producer and critic. Kidman has won numerous awards, and she has been the recipient of fellowships, grants and other significant honours, as well as being a consistent advocate for New Zealand writers and literature. She is the President of Honour for the New Zealand Book Council, and has been awarded an OBE and a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for her services to literature.

Reviews

[Carol, She's so Novel ꧁꧂ · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wasn't sure if this book was quite a 5★, but a day later & I'm still thinking about both the book & the subject matter so...

Fiona Kidman is one of New Zealand's most respected fiction writers. From her bio on Goodreads;

Much of her fiction is focused on how outsiders navigate their way in narrowly conformist society.

Perfect description of this book - & of 1950's New Zealand society.

Young Irishman Albert "Paddy" Black

emigrates to New Zealand as a "Ten Pound Pom" - an immigrant who receives an assisted passage to New Zealand. Kidman's interpretation has Black as happy in his new country at first, but he soon becomes homesick and he leaves Lower Hutt & the good friend he has made to chase better pay in our biggest city. Black becomes a caretaker for an inner city boarding house. Johnny McBride (real name Alan Jacques)

Is bigger, meaner & (Black believes) older than Albert, and he forces his way into the boarding house. Things come to a head and after a severe beating at Jacques' hands & provocation at a milk bar, Black stabs Jacques in the neck. Against the odds, the stabbing proves fatal and Black is arrested.

"This Mortal Boy" is in all kinds of trouble. His new Auckland friends desert him, he is up against prejudice against youth, new immigrants - & the Minister of Justice "Gentleman Jack" Marshall. Marshall was a great contradiction -gentle and charming in his manner, but a hardcore proponent of the death penalty.

Source Wikipedia: Public Domain

I wasn't around in 1955, but I do remember Marshall from later in his career (He was briefly the New Zealand Prime Minister) as one of the most honorable NZ politicians.

Poor "Paddy" never stood a chance. He was the second to last person hanged in NZ. His death and the cruel way his mother was denied permission to visit NZ to farewell her son, caused an outcry and the death penalty as a punishment for murder was abolished in 1957.

Kidman's writing style is literary, thoughtful and reflective. She does a good job of showing the contradictions in New Zealand society of the time. I'm not totally convinced by her interpretation of Black's character, but I was still fascinated.

https://wordpress.com/view/carolshess...

[Kerri · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the title of this book. It caught my eye early this year, and while I couldn't buy it immediately, my mind kept returning to it. It stuck with me. I also find the cover very striking, it's simple but there is something about it that made it stand out.
I finally got it, and it's been a wonderful read. After reading the back, I had expected that I would be a blubbering mess by the end of the book. You know right away that Albert Black doesn't survive -- he was the second-to-last parson to be executed in New Zealand. On a side note, I actually hasn't realised that execution had been brought back for a time in the 50's, so this book proved quite educational. As I mentioned, I didn't end up sobbing my heart out, but I did find myself thinking deeply about everything that had taken place, and the sad outcome. I read a few interviews with Fiona Kidman, which were fascinating, and found it quite jarring when one of them included a photo of Albert Black -- it was a little startling to see him alive and so clearly a real person, probably at that point still hoping that things would go well during his trial.

Fiona Kidman beautifully recreates the events leading up the the night Albert kills another young man at a milk bar in Auckland on 26 July 1955, and all that followed. She captures a strange time in New Zealand history, when many adults were in a moral panic about teenagers.

'At the weekends, boys wearing leather jackets congregated on motorbikes, young girls flocking to meet them. And if the girls weren't up to tricks with the motorbike riders, they were with the boys from their school. Or so it was said. Bodgies and widgies, comic books and Mickey Spillane, suggestive American songs on the hit parades. The bodgies wore stovepipe trousers and thick-soled shoes, and hair greased with Brylcreem touching their collars. And coloured socks. Lime green or red or pink, colour manifesting itself after the drab years of the war. The widgies wore their cardigans back to front with the sleeves pushed up to their elbows, one of the sure signs a girl was going off the rails. Or, pedal-pushers, tight three-quarter-length pants, another sign of degradation. The Prime Minister, a craggy, thick-browed man called Sid Holland, had ordered a report be drawn up so that this delinquent behaviour could be stamped out '

With such a worked up political backdrop, what really should have been a manslaughter trial was blown into something much more. As it says on the back cover, 'Was this a love crime, was it a sign of juvenile delinquency? Or was this dark episode in our recent history more about our society's reaction to outsiders?'*

All in all it was a compelling read, one that I keep turning over in my mind. I was very impressed with Fiona Kidman's writing, and will be seeking out more of her work.

*Albert Black was Irish.

[Craig Sisterson · Rating 5 out of 5]

When Dame Fiona Kidman was fifteen years old, a young immigrant from Belfast had his life ended at the gallows within the volcanic rock walls of Mt Eden prison in Auckland. Albert "Paddy" Black had only just farewelled the teenage years himself. He'd come to New Zealand as an eighteen-year-old, a 'ten pound Pom' aboard a steamship searching for a better life. He had no inkling then that his life had barely two years left to run, or that his death would play a key part in New Zealand finally abolishing the death penalty, despite political infighting.

The case stuck with Kidman, who in the six decades since has become a doyenne of the New Zealand storytelling scene as an award-winning novelist, poet, short story writer, and scriptwriter. She's also produced journalism and non-fiction books, and explored real-life personalities and events through her novels. That's the case with her latest book, THIS MORTAL BOY, which is also something of a departure for Kidman in that the majority of her very fine oeuvre has focused on the lives of women.

But what THIS MORTAL BOY does share with Kidman's past novels is, as the New Zealand Book Council has said, a focus "on how outsiders navigate their way in narrowly conformist society".

As Kidman eloquently shows throughout, mid 1950s New Zealand was a politic conservative place, a country still recovering in a way from the losses and scars of the Second World War. Onscreen James Dean is rebelling without a cause, and teenagers are looking for excitement and fun in a way that worries those in authority. Mickey Spillane's books, considered indecent by some due to their unabashed portrayal of sex and violence, are hugely popular with the younger generation. Politicians are worried about the rise of bodgie and widgie culture, about teenager's sexual escapades outside the capital, and the violence and lawlessness they associated with teenagers.

It is against this backdrop that young Paddy Black from Belfast is trying to find his way in a new land. A young man considered British in his homeland, Irish in his new home, who grew up with the 'us and them' of sectarian divides, and now faces both welcome and discrimination as an immigrant.

Many things change, many stay the same.

Kidman delivers rich characterisation, not just from the viewpoint of Paddy Black, but of many others associated with his short life and sudden end. Why did this rather gentle young man who loved to sing and dance thrust a knife into the neck of Alan Jacques beside a jukebox in a downtown cafe? Had he gone off the rails as he'd come of age and embraced the bodgie lifestyle? Was it a callous murder by a young delinquent, more evidence of an epidemic the Mazengarb Report said was sweeping the nation? Or was the story more complex than what was published in the newspapers?

THIS MORTAL BOY doesn't just take us into the courtroom, or recreate the main events that led to two deaths, but goes much broader and deeper. Kidman gives us a textured, holistic view on a life that was more than a symbol, or an entry in a history book. We get a flavour for Black's childhood in Belfast, his earliest experiences working in the Hutt Valley, a peek into the jury room and the political chamber. We experience the grief of a family getting the most traumatic news by telegram from a half a world away. We see the differing effect on everyone at a prison as the gallows are readying for use.

While we're taken through varying times and perspectives, Kidman keeps everything flowing beautifully. It never feels 'jumpy' or disjointed, instead it's a story that builds in depth and texture. A harrowing and haunting tale that is full of humanity. Kidman raises plenty of questions about the conviction of Paddy Black. There's no doubt he stabbed Jacques, a violent youth who'd adopted the name of a Mickey Spillane character as his identity, but was it really murder? The dice seemed loaded against Black from the start, regardless of the real circumstances. Where does justice lie?

This is an exquisitely written novel from a master storyteller; an important and fascinating read.

[Cathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

In This Mortal Boy, the author depicts not just Albert Black’s trial and the events leading up to it but the effect on other people involved. There’s his family back in Belfast naturally, especially his mother, who leads attempts to obtain mercy for her son. But also the jury members, some of whom are more troubled by their role in potentially taking the life of a man than others, the prison staff and governor who must oversee Albert’s final days and hours, and most movingly perhaps Oliver Buchanan, part of Albert’s defence team, with sons of his own. ‘Once, he would have wished them to follow the law, as he has done, but now he hopes they will not. The law, as it stands at this moment, seems cruel and unjust, a carapace for power and revenge, designed by men who have been to war and can’t let the past go; must hunt down enemies for the rest of their lives.’

The author also explores the wider societal and political background to the case: public attitudes towards immigrants and youth culture; the role of the press in forming or even inflaming public opinion. Issues which, sadly, still form part of public discourse today.

As the book is based on real events, there is a sense of inevitability about the outcome. However, the sensitive way the story is told and the way in which the various issues are explored maintains the reader’s interest. The closing chapters of the book detailing Albert’s final days following his conviction and sentencing are poignant, incredibly moving but also chilling.

This Mortal Boy is a compelling story of discrimination, prejudice, closed minds and entrenched attitudes resulting in the waste of a life. Whether or not Albert Black was a victim of a miscarriage of justice is up to each reader to decide but, for me, the author persuasively made the case that this was so.

This is the first book I’ve read by Fiona Kidman. I came to it with high expectations because of positive reviews by other book bloggers; I wasn’t disappointed. There is beautiful writing and I especially liked the way the author captured the rhythms of speech of the various characters. I also loved the inclusion of Irish folk and popular songs.

[Trudie · Rating 3 out of 5]

To be fair to this book, it is not one I would have naturally gravitated towards but was rather a local bookclub selection. It is a fictionalised true crime story about Albert Black the second to last man to hang in New Zealand. It is always a pleasure to plunge into a book where every street name and local reference is immediately recognisable and makes me realise how few books set in NZ I do read.

The Mortal Boy paints a rather bleak picture of the 1950s in this country, a period of great social change. The facts of this case are set against a backdrop of a youth subculture of Bodgies and Widgies and the Mazengarb report into juvenile delinquency, a copy of which was sent to every home in New Zealand and blamed lack of parental supervision for juvenile delinquency and advocated a return to Christianity and traditional values. It is a time in New Zealand's history that is not that well known ( or at least not by me ) and so this book became a good history lesson.

In general, however, I am not a true crime reader and particularly fictionalised crime as I struggle constantly wanting to know what parts are fiction and which are based in truth. Is it true that Albert Black would constantly breakout into Irish song ? Like-wise some of the characters, particularly the fictional members of the jury strayed into caricature. The crime itself while sensational at the time, did not greatly piqued my interest, the main contention being if it should have been a manslaughter charge rather than murder and the obvious role that prejudice towards immigrants played in getting this young man hanged.

Still this is a solid read by a well-respected NZ author and one I would recommend to NZ history buffs or true crime fans, but it wasn't quite the book for me.

[Bridget · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poor Albert Black, the second to last man killed under the death penalty in New Zealand, a young man trying to find his place in the world, lonely, frustrated and trying to fit into a new country in the mid 1950s. Albert has come to New Zealand in search of good things, sailing a long journey from Belfast. On arrival he is renamed Paddy and picks up work, he boards with a young family makes friends and then begins to hang out with a wilder crowd. Meanwhile back at home his mother pines for him and is unable to pick up much of his life from his letters, his family miss him and he is always in their thoughts. Leaving his new friends behind, Albert moves to Auckland and while at first it seems as if all is going well, he even meets a lovely girl, although he is still lonely and trying to fit in, he hangs out with a crowd of young people at cafe's in central Auckland and amongst that crowd is the young man he will eventually be accused of killing.

This book is set in a period I knew very little about, the time of my parent's youth, a time of bodgy's and widgies and teddy boys. I remember my grandfather speaking of these and not having a clue what he mean! The beginning of the social revolution. It was a time of suspicion of young people, fear of the changing of social custom and a time when moral panic gripped the nation. The Government commissioned a report which damned the behaviour of these young people as immoral, they banned Micky Spillane books. My friend told me that her mother made her and her sisters cross the road to walk past milk bars where these dodgy young people gathered.

This is Albert's sad tale, an incredibly moving account of a short and sad life. I completely loved it and cried at the end. It won the prize for the best fiction in the country and I believe that was thoroughly deserved. This a book to make you smile and cry, there is so much in it to think about and feel. Highly recommended.

[Carmel Hanes · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 rating on this sad tale of a young boy put to death for a crime committed in the country he immigrated to.

"Paddy" left his homeland looking for opportunities in New Zealand. He has the misfortune of connecting with a troubled young man, Johnny, who can quickly become violent. An impulsive response by Paddy results in Johnny's death, and Paddy is convicted and sentenced to death for murder. We follow Paddy as he lives the outcome of this act, as well as those who love him trying to help him from afar.

This true story highlights how fear and prejudice influence not only our day to day interactions, but our political and judicial systems. From the neighborhood mutterings about how people dress and behave, to laws passed to "protect" our society, to uncensored comments by those in power which then influence the thinking of juries, we find that ungenerous assumptions and condemnation create ugly tendrils of influence that choke the life from the vulnerable. Sometimes literally. We see that whether one lives or dies sometimes depends on the teeter-totter of public opinion. Had Paddy been convicted a few years before or after, he would have received a prison sentence rather than a death sentence. That we can't seem to make up our minds about putting people to death might be an indication that we should take the option off the table.

The story shows how a basically decent fellow can wind up in circumstances where an impetuous act derails a life. A redeemable life, that had no chance. It also shows how who we are influences our thinking and decision-making as a juror. It brings into question just what a "jury of peers" might need to look like for true justice to be served.

Sadly, had I not known this was a story taking place many years ago in New Zealand, I might have thought I was reading a current news story in my own country.

[Marcus Hobson · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an excellent book. Fiona Kidman certainly knows how to weave a story, keeping the action moving and gripping the reader. The achievement is even more extraordinary because you know the outcome from the beginning.
Albert Black, Paddy to his friends, was the second-to-last person to be hanged in New Zealand. He was the infamous ‘jukebox killer’. You know the book will close with his execution, but Kidman writes this so well that you are still there hoping for a reprieve or a last-minute stay of execution. I am still trying to work out how she does this? I think it must be in the characters, Albert’s mother back in Northern Ireland, still clinging to hope, Albert’s lawyer walking the streets late at night looking for something else to help save the boy. And he was only really a boy of twenty. These other characters that drift in and out of the story are essential to making the narrative so powerful.

This is a true story, and that gives plenty of detail for the author to work with, but what caught my attention were some of the fascinating pieces of true history. In September 1954 a special report was published by Dr Oswald Mazengarb entitled ‘The Special Committee on Moral Delinquency in Children and Adolescents’. It became known as the Mazengarb report and copies were sent in the mail to households all over the country. It is fascinating to read – you can download a copy for free from Project Gutenberg. It considers the growth of early sexual behaviour in teens and the influences that were driving that, including books, comics, and cinema (not TV, as that hadn’t arrived in New Zealand in 1954). It considered the ways family life was failing teens, how religion was not controlling morality, how much teens could earn in a job and how easy it was to obtain contraception. The report looked to families to exert more control, and you can sense a degree of outrage that more and more mothers were going out to work.
The Committee was “…deluged with periodicals, paper-backed books, and “comics” considered by their respective senders to be so harmful to children and adolescents that their sale should not be permitted.” The law at the time said that such publications had to be indecent or obscene to be banned under law.
It is a fascinating insight into a moment in time. In 1955 there were four executions in the same year and two were for murders of teenagers in bars on Auckland’s Queen Street. After only a couple more years the law was repealed and public execution ceased.

Fiona Kidman’s book leaves us feeling that there was a miscarriage of justice, that there were too many factors not taken into account before Albert Black was put to death.

The Mickey Spillane connection

The boy that Albert Black killed was called Alan Jacques, but the name that most people knew him by was Johnny McBride. That name was taken from the central violent character in a novel by Mickey Spillane. That novel is called ‘The Long Wait’. It is mentioned quite often in Fiona Kidman’s book, and was probably one of the books that the Mazengarb report refers to.
As I was reading ‘This Mortal Boy’ I was thinking that I have never actually read a Mickey Spillane book, but I did pick up a copy of one a couple of years ago at a bookfair. It has languished on the TBR shelves by the bed ever since. I pulled it out and discovered that it is ‘The Long Wait’, and not only that it is a copy from 1953, and was sold by Bennett & Co, booksellers in Palmerston North, New Zealand. In other words this copy was completely contemporary with the story and could have been a copy that directly contributed the ‘moral panic’ that was spreading across the country fueled by such novels.

[Claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sensitively written account that combines the facts of a true story around the criminal trial of a young man from Belfast, Northern Ireland who arrives in NZ in the 1950's on a £10 ticket with guaranteed work for 2 yeas, who never quite fits in and discovers it is a whole lot more expensive to return, if you decide you don't want to stay.

Initially he works in Wellington where he sticks with his friend Peter, a young man from Liverpool who he met on the boat, they move in as private boarders with a young widow and her children, but the letters from home give Albert Black itchy feet and so he heads up to Auckland in search of better paid work to save for his passage home.

He is a gentle, kind lad, one his landlady trust immediately to take care of her boarding house while she tends to a sick friend. A little lonely he begins to frequent a cafe where he comes across a violent young man, who will cause a significant change in his life's trajectory.

The volatile man calls himself Johnny McBride after a character in a Mickey Spillane novel,he is quick to settle any dispute with his fists and his feet and when Albert regrest allowing him stay a few nights and the guy overstays his welcome their relationship turns sour and then violent, resulting in a death.

Albert is tried for murder at a time when the death penalty had been brought back into use (with a change of govt to a more right wing party that was taking a hardline on what they perceived as immoral youth and free in expressing publicly their prejudice against and contempt for outsiders).

The offender is not one of ours. It is unfortunate that we got this undesirable from his homeland.

Albert effectively becomes a scapegoat for a violent message they want to deliver to wayward youth, and with the odds stacked against him, a terrible verdict is delivered.

...in the eyes of God as in those of conscience, what is a crime when individuals do it is no less an offence when society commits the deed. Victor Hugo

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every year the Ngaio Marsh Awards for New Zealand Crime Fiction include something that makes this reader marvel at the depth and quality of work coming out of that country. Dame Fiona Kidman came to THIS MORTAL BOY as (paraphrasing her own words) an accidental crime writer, but she has form in the central concept, where she has often recreated the past of characters, developing a fictional story based on true events or people. THIS MORTAL BOY is just such an undertaking.

Albert Black was the second last person executed in New Zealand, and I believe I saw somewhere that Kidman came across his story after talking to a witness to the events that lead to his conviction (this occurred in the mid 1950's). Black was Irish, born to a desperately poor family, an immigrant to New Zealand in search of prospects and a better life. Kidman takes readers back to Black's childhood in Ireland, and most tellingly gives us a glimpse into his families anguish at the conviction and the prospect of his execution. The novel concentrates on the story of Albert Black however, so we don't get the same sort of insight into the victim Alan Keith Jacques (aka Johnny McBride). Working backwards and forwards through the past and Black's life in New Zealand, Kidman seamlessly, tellingly, compellingly, draws a picture of a young man on the cusp of life who made the sorts of choices, and therefore mistakes, that many make.

Kidman has pulled off one of those forms of novel where a true story is woven into a fictional account that doesn't play fast and loose with the truth or the ultimate outcome. A fight over a girl, leading to Black's decision to arm himself with a knife, after which an encounter with the same man who beat him the night before, turned into a single knife blow that killed his rival in love and Albert Black was ultimately executed. The build up to this event provides real insight into a febrile society. Post war, social change had arrived in New Zealand, and young people, in particular are very different. The free love, drugs and rock and roll 1960's are on the horizon, whilst 1950's bodgies and widgies subculture was thriving. The tensions around the "generation gap" were starting to be felt and there was an overwhelming belief that the younger generation were out of control. Needless to say it's a heady mix for a young Irishman from a deprived background to land into. The opportunities that present themselves on his arrival in Auckland are almost too much for him to handle, and the smack in the head that is falling in love, sends him spiralling into some really bad decision making.

Somewhere in all of this, the line between fiction and fact becomes blurred in a manner that readers unaware of all the facts of Albert Black's crimes will be hard-pressed to pick. Kidman uses a series of letters from prison, accounts of final visits with friends and switching timelines and places to draw out a story of an immensely vulnerable young man in a time that's not best suited to understanding and forgiveness. In particularly heart-breaking fashion we also see the affects of his crime, trial and punishment on his mother. Back in Ireland, desperate to get to her son, to understand what has gone so horribly wrong, the portrayal of this woman is moving. You're left considering the ease with which young men do stupid things, a sneaking suspicion that murder was too harsh a decision, and the anguish of that mother and her belief in her son; in stark contrast to comments attributed to NZ Attorney General, John Marshall, "... we could do without these deplorable migrants". Readers have no option but to pause and consider if this is really what he said, what were the implications of that attitude on the trial and sentence?

THIS MORTAL BOY is sensitively written, beautifully constructed, considered and well balanced. It carefully delivers a number of points for the reader to contemplate - lack of compassion, lack of understanding of peer pressure, overt political interference in the judicial system, and the finality of capital punishment. It's not, however, a novel that shouts moral conclusions from the rafters. Rather it lays out the story of two young men who make stupid decisions, who lack self-control and wisdom and end up in an awful place. Whether or not they both deserved to die for this is left to the reader to consider, as is the role of the state and the judiciary when it comes to careful and cautious consideration of the facts, and the right to compassion and clear moral leadership. Needless to say, THIS MORTAL BOY, is a mighty undertaking and a very worthy Ngaio Marsh Award Winner.

https://www.austcrimefiction.org/revi...

[Caroline Barron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dame Fiona Kidman, the master of NZ historical fiction based on fact, at work once more. My birth grandfather (Dad was adopted) died in Mt Eden prison in 1961, so I was particularly intrigued by her vivid description of the prison. I later read that the Department of Corrections had organized a tour of the prison for her - no wonder it felt as though she'd walked the corridors herself.

Favourite quote (and I'd be interested to know if it is a direct transcript from the actual trial):
'You have before you this mortal boy, once who has made a mistake, unintended, but a mistake nonetheless, with terrible consequences. Death is forever,' Pearson says, 'as Albert Black now understands better than most of us. All around you, in this courtroom, you are surrounded by the beauty and vitality of youth, as well as its vanities and arrogance. The young occupy an uncertain universe. Mistakes can be made in the heat of the moment by the vulnerable young. Who amongst us has not had the thoughtless moment that cannot be recovered? Yet none of us have had to pay with our lives. In the clear, long light of all the days that lie ahead of these young people, most of their mistakes can be overcome and forgiven. As we grow older, we put behind us the belief that we are immortal; we gain a greater sense of wisdom and understanding of consequences. Our passions turn to questions of truth and justice as well as the passions of the flesh. As people who pray for forgiveness for yourselves, you have now the opportunity to forgive another. May you be guided by goodness and mercy.' - page 214.

[Isabella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Second read: 17/06/21 - 17/06/21

Rating: (still) 5 stars

Man, this book just hits so good! (Grammar, what are you?) I was actually born in Mount Eden, the suburb in Auckland where this trial took place, and this makes it feel so much more, well, closer to home. I suppose "older" countries won't really understand, because they probably have heaps of true crime stories, but NZ is 181 years old, and so our "history" is not actually that historical. Anyway, I'm going off topic so I should probably stop now. Read below if you want more nonsensical thoughts. BUT PEOPLE. JUST READ THIS BOOK.


First read: 20/01/21 - 20/01/21

Rating: 5 stars

I loved this book so much. It was incredible. The poignancy of the story is conveyed wonderfully, and it almost made me cry! There are very few books that have ever done that. The way the author uses multiple timelines and perspectives was just amazing. I could just gush about it for several pages. I can find not fault (that being said, I just finished it 2 minutes ago so my opinion is definitely not impartial). Just read this book. It details New Zealand's penultimate hanging, and if that sounds even remotely interesting to you, look up the synopsis and just read this book please. AHHHHHH IT'S SO GOOD

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. An absolutely brilliant book which portrays a dark episode in NZ history. Unfortunately, the prejudices and bigotry towards immigrants has not changed by much in 60+ years.

A truly moving story which I highly recommend.

[Emily :) · Rating 5 out of 5]

finding out that nz not only had the death penalty in the 1950s, but had actually reinstated it after it was abolished, was absolutely horrifying - thank you national party??? very on brand i guess.
i love historical fiction but dont think i have ever read any set in nz??? it was kinda weird and eery, but also very moving. i loved the multiple perspectives, especially kathleen’s. also loved that this showed how the death penalty had impacts on not just the criminal and their family, but the prison guards, lawyers, jurors etc. again, very moving and much to think about.

[Simon Mee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not an easy book to write, I think. Particularly one where the main characters fully inhabit the world of New Zealand in 1950s, or at least the one portrayed to us in books or the screen, albeit a bit wilder than in the film Tangiwai. It certainly hit a lot of touchstones early:

After the swearing in, a recess is called where they will get to know each other over morning tea and biscuits.

I felt tightly wound up reading This Mortal Boy. It’s tense when a marble is stolen, it’s tense over immigration:

'The country’s full of foreigners these days. Wogs everywhere. Spicks. Jews. Chinamen. All sorts, if you ask me. We were better off before the war.'

…it’s tense over flatmates, its tense with the debates at the highest and lowest levels over the death penalty, it’s tense at home, with no chance to unwind:

Stopping at the doorways of each of his sons’ rooms, he half wishes one of them will wake, so that he might suggest a cup of hot Milo, a piece of toast smothered in Marmite.

…it’s very tense over sex, well, sometimes humorous:

As if she hadn’t heard this, Sally circled the forefinger and thumb of her left hand, using the forefinger of her right to poke back and forwards through.

There’s violence, ranging from domestic against women and children:

He got hidings if he didn’t milk the cows fast enough.

…to actual homicide and the Government’s ultimate response:

'Aren’t we, as a government, not succumbing to lynch law?'

...and drinking, so much drinking, be it the five o’clock swill, a wild house party or late night reminisces while the wife waits with cabbage pooled into an amoebic slime in the oven.

Welcome to New Zealand.

[Jennifer (JC-S) · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘It is a matter of pride to him that under his watch the death penalty has been reinstated.’

On 5 December 1955, Albert Laurence Black, became the second last person to be executed in New Zealand. Albert Black was only twenty when he was convicted of murdering another young man during a fight at a milk bar in Auckland on 26 July 1955. In this haunting novel, Fiona Kidman recreates the events that led to his execution.

And it is a haunting story: encouraged by his mother, Albert Black left Ireland in search of a better life. He made friends with another emigrant, and the two of them found labouring jobs and boarded with a widow in Lower Hutt. But Albert was restless and homesick. Initially he tried to save enough money to return home to Ireland but his need for companionship and desire to try to fit in with other young people thwarted his plans.

Albert moved to Auckland, where he became caretaker of a large house. Despite being told by the landlord not to take in housemates, he did. Albert fell in love with one girl, but another man (one of his housemates) was jealous. And on the 26th of July 1955, in a scuffle, Albert accidentally killed him.

‘What do you know about Albert Black? … Who’s to know what really happened that night? You lot don’t know nothing.’

Reading this novel, I found it difficult to accept that Albert was convicted of murder. But in 1955, it seems that New Zealand was not a liberal society. The novel portrays a society in which English migrants (and especially Irish migrants) were viewed with suspicion. Being different was almost proof of wrongdoing. And in the court, Albert never really had a chance.

I found this a difficult novel to read: sad and thought-provoking.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

[Julie James · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel is based on the tragic true story of Albert Black. The start of Black's story is incredibly similar to the story of my own immigrant Father- arrived in NZ on the "Captain Cook" from Northern Ireland in the 1950s on a government work scheme. However, despite hard times my father built a very successful life while Black struggled to adjust and fit in, his life ultimately spiraling out of control and ending in tragedy.
Although not an uplifting story it was utterly fascinating, especially the look at 1950s NZ and the moral panic of the time.

[Christine D · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a powerful book for me. I was about 10 years old when the events described took place. I lived very close to Trentham and I was a teacher in Naenae a little more than 10 years later. I don’t remember the politics, the case or anything about Albert Black, but I do remember the bodgies with their tight pants and fantastical hair, and the widgies with their short crinolines skirts and tightly cinched waistlines. I remember the whispered despair about teenage behaviour, and it was made clear that better would be expected of me. We used to go to Elbes Milk Bar on occasion, but suddenly it was off limits stirring intense curiosity. This work gave my memories a wider and a darker context.
Apart from personal memories, Fiona Kidman’s story is an evocative account of an era and it’s injustices, over reactions and entrenched conservatism which were by no means unique. Her characters are powerfully wrought and her writing as compelling as always.

[lucy · Rating 3 out of 5]

might as well log this one
‘the prejudice against the outsider…it was alive and well in the room, it had been there all along.” - was for sute my favourite part 😁😁💗💗🏅👏👏🤘!!!!!!!!!!!! no it was not

[Claire (Silver Linings and Pages) · Rating 5 out of 5]

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“You have before you this mortal boy, one who has made a mistake, unintended, but a mistake nonetheless, with terrible consequences. Death is forever....The young occupy an uncertain universe. Mistakes can be made in the heat of the moment by the vulnerable young.”
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Thank you @gallicbooks for this review copy in return for an honest opinion.
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I was deeply moved by this haunting fictionalised account of a notorious case, the “Jukebox murder” in 1950s New Zealand. It is based on the true story of 18-year-old Albert “Paddy” Black, a “ten pound Pom” who emigrated from Belfast to Auckland in 1953. After being badly beaten up one night by violent young man Johnny McBride, Paddy stabs the other to death during a bar brawl. Paddy must face a judge and jury as an outsider in a country which has become fixated on demonising the young and enforcing morality in every aspect of society.
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This reimagining of the events that led to one of NZ’s last executions in 1955 is such a wonderfully compassionate, empathetic and humane account. It depicts Paddy as a gentle, kind and loving young man who was desperately homesick and made a terrible mistake. As the events surrounding the incident unravel, the author strongly conveys her deep sense of injustice and belief that this was an act of self-defence and the crime to answer should have been manslaughter, not murder. Therefore she puts to the reader that Paddy should not have received the death penalty.
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Fiona Kidman also skilfully evokes the places and people of the time - her descriptions of post-blitz Belfast and NI politics/community relations are perfect and her thorough research is evident. and the political tension and moralistic panic of right-wing governed New Zealand is palpable.
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I’m particularly drawn to books like this, which project that ethics and morality are not black and white, that humans are complex and there can be reasons and a context for dubious behaviour. This book delves deep into so many of those aspects: race, immigration, class, poverty, arrogance of youth and abuse.

The author has deservedly won prizes for this and is actually campaigning for the conviction of murder to be overturned. It is such a tragic story that depicts the fragility of life and yet my abiding impression is of how beautifully the author has weaved through the many forms of love with hope. Highly recommended 👌

[Alexandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

I gathered my courage, faced the prospect of being confronted with a mother's greatest fear, and read Fiona Kidman's 'This Mortal Boy.' The rewards haven't been little.

When reading Fiona Kidman's latest novel I have a strong feeling that I am in the story rather than reading it. 'This Mortal Boy' brings Nabokov's 'Lolita' to mind - exquisite prose about a subject that would seem to defy the very concept of beauty.

The novel challenges the status quo, the right to label and judge another, the aggressiveness inherent in so many of us, and the ease with which friendships are dismissed and people led astray just to prove points on somebody's agenda. I enjoyed the pace of the narrative and the way it allows the reader in, giving them time to be in the scene, in the present of the novel.

The novel also seems to challenge the postmodern idea of truths in the plural as opposed to a singular truth, as opposed to the one version of the story which could have saved Albert but which never gets told. Until 'This Mortal Boy,' that is. The novel feels redemptive for the character and, in the real world, for his daughter. I found the novel quite affecting in its portrayal of innocence and affection and hope.

This first non-feminist novel by a writer whose work many would describe as feminist is deeply human and humane.

Socrates is believed to have said that living an unexamined life is a waste or a sin. Albert Black's story does not leave this option open. It kicks the introspective mechanism into full gear. Could a book have the power to cathartically compel its readers to face the daemon of aggressiveness in themselves and become more empathetic? And, conversely, could a book inspire the softer of its reader with the courage to face their aggressors in ways that eschew responding in kind? If any book could do either of these, that book is 'This Mortal Boy.'

'This Mortal Boy' invites reflection and introspection while being a very satisfying read on a number of levels.

#ethicsinliterature #metamodernliterature

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This Mortal Boy is shortlisted for the 2019 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards but that's not the only reason I'm reading it: Fiona Kidman is one of five Kiwi authors in a session called Inside Peek at the Auckland Writers Festival in May, and I will be there in the audience, wanting to ask her: whatever was the trigger for her to write about capital punishment in this compelling way?

There are books which I don't want to end because I'm enjoying them so much, and then there are books like this one, where the ending is known and I don't want to read it. It would make no difference to me whether Albert Black were guilty or not, I find the idea of hanging a young man of twenty absolutely repellent. As you know if you read my review of Seven Hanged (1908) by Leonid Andreyev (translated by Anthony Briggs) I think all capital punishment in any circumstances is repellent.

Fiona Kidman (whose Acknowledgements show that the book is meticulously researched) brings the story alive. The novel traces Albert's impoverished early life in Belfast, his optimistic migration to New Zealand, and his absorption into the 1950s youth subculture of Auckland's teenagers in the era of Bodgies and Widgies. Left in charge as caretaker of a house with an absentee landlord, he has unsupervised freedom when he is too young to handle the situations that arise. His biggest problem is a young thug known as James McBride, an alias he has adopted from the character in the Mickey Spillane pulp fiction novel The Long Wait.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2019/03/28/t...

[Jackie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Based on a true story. Albert Black the second to last man hanged in NZ after being found guilty of murdering another man in a cafe. Loved everything about the book. Writing is great and the book is perfect in length. Definite 5 stars for me.

[The Twins · Rating 5 out of 5]

A small piece of NZ history has come to life beautifully in this amazing book by Fiona Kidman. An absolute must read!

[Yvonne Dongen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A master craftswoman at the top of her game.

[Electra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lu en une journée. J’attends quelques jours pour écrire ma chronique. Merci Kathel.

[Cait · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best parts of moving to New Zealand has been discovering its rich and diverse literary culture. Dame Fiona Kidman is considered a national treasure and after reading her most recent historical novel, This Mortal Boy, I can absolutely see why. She fleshes out the compelling story of a young Irish man, Albert Black, who has recently immigrated to New Zealand to seek opportunity. But once he gets to the other side of the world he realises the grass isn’t always greener and he starts to long for the comfort of family and familiar things. This, obviously, was something I could dearly appreciate. Albert is a good kid, but is also enjoying the freedom and gets tangled up in more than he can handle. This all takes place in a time (mid-1950s) when a severe, conservative government has come to power and is flexing its authority to reign in what it sees as the corruption of the country’s youth.
So it is a perfect storm that leads to a mother’s beloved son, Albert Black, becoming the penultimate person executed by New Zealand.
Kidman writes beautifully and hauntingly of humanity and lost opportunities. This story and its plea for understanding has wedged itself into the back of my mind. I’m looking forward to diving deep into Kidman’s back catalogue.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the powerful things literature can do is put the reader in the lives of people very different from herself--but still people who inhabit the same world, have the same feelings, deserve the same dignity just as humans. This is the fictionalized story of the second-to-last execution of a capital sentence in New Zealand. When I start knowing the crime and the sentence, I start with little empathy. But as the point of view went back and forth in time and rotated among characters, I realized other things about that character. (Reminded me of Catcher in the Rye in a way.) Not excuses, but an individual life is generally more complex than its appearance. Adolescents can do stupid things--even more so when they are under unusual stress. Chance and circumstances, background and safety nets, mean that most risky behavior doesn't have the worst outcome, and people grow and change. Every so often, for a given individual, there is a confluence of worst outcomes for a perfect storm.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed following the whole examination of the death sentence and its validity, presented through an appeal, especially in a country where it has been revoked and reinstated several times. I had never heard of Paddy/Albert Black but his case really did exist and was undoubtedly very important, coming at a point when arguments for and against the death penalty were being heatedly exchanged.

It's a book that will certainly make you think. Despite having no previous knowledge of his existence, his plight touched me, especially as he was so young when everything started to go wrong.

Complete review on my blog : https://madhousefamilyreviews.blogspo...

[Maddie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was beautiful, but immensely difficult. It reminded me a lot of Hannah Kent’s Burial Rites, in that you know how it’s going to end, but it’s still heartbreaking as you work your way towards the inevitable. That it was relatively slow-moving made that even harder, because you can see what’s happening as it develops.

I learned a lot about modern New Zealand history through this book, and used it as a launch pad to do a bit of additional research. If nothing else, it highlights the danger of moral panic and prejudice, particularly in regards to age, immigration and ethnicity.

I was totally captivated by this book and while it hurt to get through, I’m so glad I read it.