BookBrowse Reviews Theft by Abdulrazak Gurnah

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Nobel Prize-winner Abdulrazak Gurnah captures three people struggling to find satisfaction in their lives in early 2000s Tanzania and the connections between them.

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Karim is the result of an unhappy marriage. His father is completely absent from his life after his parents' divorce, and his mother is emotionally distant and neglectful, then absent as well after she remarries. He is mostly raised by his aging grandparents, and grows up wondering why people bother to have children if they don't want them. Despite the trouble in his family, he excels in school and wins a coveted scholarship to university.

Fauzia grows up stifled by her mother's uncontrolled anxiety. As a young child she suffers from a "falling sickness" that causes seizures. Though she stops having symptoms as she grows older, her mother can never let go of her fear that the illness will return or that the memory of it will diminish her future prospects, especially for marriage. Like Karim, Fauzia is an excellent student, and her dream is to teach.

Badar knows almost nothing about his biological parents—he is grudgingly raised by extended family in a poor rural village until, at age thirteen, he is sent to live with and work for strangers in the city—Karim's mother, her second husband, and her father-in-law. Gradually, Badar begins to suspect he has more of a connection to these people than he has been told.

Theft follows each of these three characters as they come into adulthood. When Karim returns home after university, he and Fauzia fall in love and are soon married. Not long after, Badar is falsely accused of stealing from his employers. Though his innocence is proven, Karim's step-grandfather holds a grudge and insists Badar cannot stay, resulting in Karim and Fauzia inviting him to move in with them. As the three come of age, they grow together and apart in unexpected ways.

The story takes place during a turbulent time on a wider scale, as Tanzania recovers from civil war and the world at large enters the 21st century, but it feels very personal. Changes like the start of the internet age and the influx of tourists to Tanzania serve to emphasize the changes in the characters. Badar explores the wider world in the ways that are accessible to him—searching travel images on the computer at work, rather than actually traveling—and Karim connects with a woman named Jerry, a tourist and volunteer visiting from London, and seeks to expand his career.

Theft is very character-driven, and Abdulrazak Gurnah does a wonderful job of depicting human flaws and the complicated ways in which the characters relate to each other. In Fauzia, we see how her childhood illness continues to haunt her as she considers the idea of having children of her own. On the other side of the spectrum is Karim, who seems to have forgotten his youthful reservations about parenthood—he is the one who pushes for having a child, but then he is unprepared for the reality of being a father. Badar must learn to see Karim as he is rather than through the lens of his youthful hero worship. Though the characters change significantly over the course of the novel, it becomes clear that this is the development of traits shown early on. Foibles that are easily overlooked in childhood develop into flaws that the characters must overcome—or fail to.

Gurnah explores privilege through the contrasts between the characters' lives and worldviews. This is most clearly seen in the contrasts between Karim and Badar, and between Fauzia and Jerry. Karim is encouraged in and lauded for his academic and career achievements, while Badar is denied either a true place in the family or the dignity of formal employment—though he is treated as a servant, when Karim's stepfather gives him money it is characterized as "gifts rather than wages, given casually." Later, Karim takes credit for helping him without acknowledging his family's role in Badar's challenges. Meanwhile Jerry is insultingly surprised about Fauzia's education and academic interests when she visits her home. Jerry treats her time in Tanzania as a consequence-free vacation, never seeming to realize or care that her actions will have a lasting effect on the lives of those around her.

My most significant critique is that the ending is rather abrupt, cutting from the characters' immediate responses to a significant life event to a short final chapter set four years later. Despite being somewhat unsatisfied with this choice of ending, I would still highly recommend the book for Gurnah's excellent character development and astute social commentary on privilege.

This review first ran in the March 26, 2025 issue of BookBrowse Recommends.