Free shipping on orders over $99
Every Day is for the Thief

Every Day is for the Thief

by Teju Cole
Paperback
Publication Date: 03/04/2014

Share This Book:

 
$24.99
A young man returns to Nigeria after fifteen years in New York. Like him, the country of his childhood has grown up quickly: found fast-food restaurants, email cafes, contempt for authority; the all-consuming draw of 'money for nothing'.

From the consulate in Manhattan to the dusty streets of Lagos, life in modern Nigeria runs like clockwork - as long as you pay the fee. A bribe for the visa clerk, a 'Christmas gift' at immigration, cash - no receipt - at the unofficial tollbooth. Petrol pumps are rigged to overcharge and internet cafes overflow with career scammers ('Dear friend.'), but the police are too busy doling out bogus fines to care. In a country routinely plundered of its oil and ancient treasures, who is to say who can thieve and who can't?

As our narrator makes the difficult journey back to his family house and its memories, he is confronted by the paradox of a country he wants to love, as burdened by its impoverished past as it is blinded by the spoils of the future. Every Day is for the Thief - now published for the first time outside Nigeria - is a candid tale of political and spiritual corruption, and a moving account of what it means to go home.
ISBN:
9780571307920
9780571307920
Category:
Contemporary fiction
Format:
Paperback
Publication Date:
03-04-2014
Publisher:
Faber & Faber
Country of origin:
United Kingdom
Pages:
176
Dimensions (mm):
216x135x14mm
Weight:
0.2kg
Teju Cole

Teju Cole is a novelist, photographer and critic. He was born in the United States in 1975, and lived in Nigeria until he went to university.

His first novel, Open City, featured on numerous book of the year lists and was the winner of prizes such as the PEN/Hemingway Award and the Internationaler Literaturpreis and was shortlisted for the Ondaatje Prize of the Royal Society of Literature. Cole is the Gore Vidal Professor of the Practice of Creative Writing at Harvard.

Click 'Notify Me' to get an email alert when this item becomes available

Reviews

Be the first to review Every Day is for the Thief.