Theft
- Author Abdulrazak Gurnah
- Narrator Ashley Zhangazha
- Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing
- Publish Date 18 March 2025
- Run Time 9 hours and 49 minutes
- Format Audio
- Genre Fiction: general and literary, Narrative theme: Coming of age, Narrative theme: Identity / belonging.
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What to expect
Bloomsbury presents Theft by Abdulrazak Gurnah, read by Ashley Zhangazha.
The new novel from the winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature - 'a maestro' (Guardian). A captivating story of the intertwined lives of three young people coming-of-age in postcolonial East Africa
Selected as a book to look out for in 2025 by the Guardian, Observer, Irish Times and BBC
_________________________________________________________
What are we given, and what do we have to take for ourselves?
It is the 1990s. Growing up in Zanzibar, three very different young people – Karim, Fauzia and Badar – are coming of age, and dreaming of great possibilities in their young nation. But for Badar, an uneducated servant boy who has never known his parents, it seems as if all doors are closed.
Brought into a lowly position in a great house in Dar es Salaam, Badar finds the first true home of his life – and the friendship of Karim, the young man of the house. Even when a shattering false accusation sees Badar sent away, Karim and Fauzia refuse to turn away from their friend.
But as the three of them take their first steps in love, infatuation, work and parenthood, their bond is tested – and Karim is tempted into a betrayal that will change all of their lives forever.
The new novel from the winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature - 'a maestro' (Guardian). A captivating story of the intertwined lives of three young people coming-of-age in postcolonial East Africa
Selected as a book to look out for in 2025 by the Guardian, Observer, Irish Times and BBC
_________________________________________________________
What are we given, and what do we have to take for ourselves?
It is the 1990s. Growing up in Zanzibar, three very different young people – Karim, Fauzia and Badar – are coming of age, and dreaming of great possibilities in their young nation. But for Badar, an uneducated servant boy who has never known his parents, it seems as if all doors are closed.
Brought into a lowly position in a great house in Dar es Salaam, Badar finds the first true home of his life – and the friendship of Karim, the young man of the house. Even when a shattering false accusation sees Badar sent away, Karim and Fauzia refuse to turn away from their friend.
But as the three of them take their first steps in love, infatuation, work and parenthood, their bond is tested – and Karim is tempted into a betrayal that will change all of their lives forever.
Critics Review
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
Beautifully crafted, its three protagonists occupy a seemingly small stage between Zanzibar and Tanzania. Yet their actions respond to larger forces. The theft of the title is pivotal, but the real crimes happen elsewhere
Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Theft is complex in its themes of class and entitlement, but it’s also, fundamentally, a piece of great, satisfying storytelling to lose yourself in.
The Nobel laureate transports us to 1990s Zanzibar and Tanzania to trace the intersected lives of Badar, Karim and Fauzia, traversing years, perspectives and the mysteries of family history with the deceptive ease of a masterly storyteller ... The rewards are rich and lasting
Another glittering tapestry of a novel from a master storyteller of our times
A storyteller of understated brilliance … A poignant portrait of love, friendship and betrayal … Powerful, affecting and provocative, Theft is a vital addition to Gurnah’s remarkable body of work, a novel steeped in heartbreak and loss but one that ultimately refuses despair
Nothing about human behaviour surprises Gurnah, and in reading his wise new novel with its gentle and beautiful ending, we the readers become a bit less judgemental, and more ready to understand what it means to struggle, to dare, to love – what it means to be human
In typically poised, elegant and unshowy prose … Gurnah is a sharp, stealthy observer himself. There’s a steely alertness to his gaze that makes the shady courtyards and sweaty rooms of Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar - and the feelings of their people - solid and luminous. He lays bare this confined space with crafty, slow-burn patience
A tightly focused, beautifully controlled examination of friendship and betrayal
The intricate narrative skilfully reflects the complexities of a post-colonial world in which there are fewer and fewer certainties
A quietly powerful demonstration of storytelling mastery, at once coming-of-age chamber piece and wide-angled post-colonial panorama … narrated in a quicksilver style that gives you the pleasurable sense that you’re putty in the hands of a warm yet clear-eyed authorial intelligence … The conclusion – crackling with jeopardy, ultimately cathartic – moves all Theft’s patiently assembled plotlines into place for a riveting denouement
The author’s compassion for these three young people as they navigate a difficult world is deeply relatable
A rich, engaging experience … Beautifully done … The reader can only rejoice at Gurnah’s skill in giving us the whole of a life in such nimble scenes
Gurnah’s first novel since being awarded the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature is set in 90s Zanzibar, where three friends from different backgrounds come of age against the complicated backdrop of post-colonial East Africa
Timely and captivating … Simple yet elegant
Gurnah has an elegant, natural prose style which he employs in a Sally Rooney-like technique … like reading a Dickens novel set in recent times and far away in Tanzania
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
Modesty and modest people are so hard to write about wittily and well yet Abdulrazak Gurnah luminously portrays the early years of a modest young man of no obvious importance. Theft is a morality tale in the truest sense: an unshowy, vividly evocative story about the things that matter, and the flimflam that really doesn’t
This Nobel winner’s new novel is a hit … Gurnah has a gentle and lyrical style that lets his tightly plotted tale unspool like a fable
A spellbinding family saga
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
A vivid, unpretentious body of work that possesses a powerful dramatic charge by virtue of its focus on the frequently cruel vicissitudes of everyday existence ... Theft is so expertly written, fair-minded and astute
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?
A characteristically poised and elegant story about three young people growing up in present-day Tanzania
Theft by 2021 laureate Abdulrazak Gurnah is the story of the intertwined lives of three young people coming-of-age in postcolonial east Africa
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
Praise for Abdulrazak Gurnah: '‘Gurnah gathers close all those who were meant to be forgotten, and refuses their erasure
A brilliant and important book for our times, by a wondrous writer
Gurnah is a master storyteller
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
As beautifully written and pleasurable as anything I've read ... The work of a maestro
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
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
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
Set against the backdrop of postcolonial East Africa, situated between Zanzibar and Dar-Es Salaam, Tanzania, Theft is a coming-of-age tale exploring the inner lives of three teenagers – Karim, Badar and Fauzia – who bond despite growing up in very different circumstances
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