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A Novel
by Abdulrazak Gurnah
Book Reviewed by:In his first new novel since winning the 2021 Nobel Prize, a master storyteller captures a time of dizzying global change.
At the turn of the twenty-first century, three young people come of age in Tanzania. Karim returns to his sleepy hometown after university with new swagger and ambition. Fauzia glimpses in him a chance at escape from a smothering upbringing. The two of them offer a haven to Badar, a poor boy still unsure if the future holds anything for him at all. As tourism, technology, and unexpected opportunities and perils reach their quiet corner of the world, bringing, each arrives at a different understanding of what it means to take your fate into your own hands.
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. It 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...continued
Full Review
(738 words)
(Reviewed by Katharine Blatchford).
In Abdulrazak Gurnah's novel Theft, multiple characters dream of seeing the world, but only some have the privilege of doing so in reality. Badar, whose economic situation puts travel out of reach, keeps a photograph of the Blue Mosque in Istanbul on the wall of his rented room as a symbol of that dream. The Blue Mosque is one of the most incredible structures surviving from the Ottoman Empire. Though commonly referred to by this moniker due to the interior color scheme, the actual name of the building is the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, after its commissioner, Ahmed I. It was built in what was at the time the central area of the city, near many other important landmarks, such as the Topkapi Palace, Hagia Sophia, and Grand Bazaar.
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