Theft

Nobody writes about the world we call postcolonial like Abdulrazak Gurnah. His novels are uncompromising, but also stubbornly humane. They come at their subjects with open eyes, and we need what they see -- Juan Gabriel Vásquez Theft is marvelous - a book of incredible scope and unflinching intimacy that leaps fearlessly among its varied cast of characters, written with absolutely devastating emotional precision. Abdulrazak Gurnah has written another classic -- V V Ganeshananthan Theft is not just a book. It is an entire universe held together by Abdulrazak Gurnah's beautiful, sensitive prose. In the stories of Badar, Fauzia and Karim rest the questions of entire generations confronting a changing world. But Gurnah also manages to do what only the most accomplished of writers can: In these pages, we begin to recognize the generosity that remains even in moments of pain and chaos. We understand the pockets of light that still exist in those most turbulent days. Gurnah has done it again -- Maaza Mengiste Three young people come of age in post-colonial East Africa in the new novel from the winner of the 2021 Nobel prize in literature. At the turn of the 21st century, change is coming to Tanzania – but will the dreams of young servant boy Badar be realised along with those of his wealthier, more educated friends? * Guardian, The books to look forward to in 2025 * A characteristically poised and elegant story about three young people growing up in present-day Tanzania -- Alex Preston * Observer, Fiction to look out for in 2025 * Theft by 2021 laureate Abdulrazak Gurnah is the story of the intertwined lives of three young people coming-of-age in postcolonial east Africa * Irish Times, Fiction to look out for in 2025 * Theft by Abdulrazak Gurnah is the highly anticipated first novel since Gurnah won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2021. Set in Zanzibar in the 1990s, this coming-of-age novel focuses on three very different young people, including Badar, an uneducated servant boy who has never known his parents * BBC * Praise for Abdulrazak Gurnah: '‘Gurnah gathers close all those who were meant to be forgotten, and refuses their erasure -- MAAZA MENGISTE * GUARDIAN * A brilliant and important book for our times, by a wondrous writer -- PHILIPPE SANDS * NEW STATESMAN, Books of the year * Gurnah is a master storyteller -- AMINATTA FORNA * FINANCIAL TIMES * Confirms Gurnah’s place among the outstanding stylists of modern English prose ... This is a novel that demands to be read and reread, for its humour, generosity of spirit and clear-sighted vision of the infinite contradictions of human nature * EVENING STANDARD * As beautifully written and pleasurable as anything I've read ... The work of a maestro * GUARDIAN * A powerfully evocative oeuvre that keeps coming back to the same questions, in spare, graceful prose, about the ties that bind and the ties that fray * DAILY TELEGRAPH * Rarely in a lifetime can you open a book and find that reading it encapsulates the enchanting qualities of a love affair ... one scarcely dares breathe while reading it for fear of breaking the enchantment * THE TIMES * Effortlessly compelling storytelling ... Gurnah excels at depicting the lives of those made small by cruelty and injustice ... You forget that you are reading fiction, it feels so real -- LEILA ABOULELA