23 h. ago
Theft by Abdulrazak Gurnah review – a masterclass in quicksilver storytelling
The Nobel laureate’s wonderful new novel connects a trio of east African teens as they come of age, moving from small-scale dramas to wide-ranging social panoramasThe receipt of a big award inevitably ramps up the pressure on whatever the winner publishes next, but there can be no such fears over Abdulrazak Gurnah’s new novel, Theft, his first since becoming a Nobel laureate in 2021. Set between his birthplace, Zanzibar, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, it’s a quietly powerful demonstration of storytelling mastery, at once coming-of-age chamber piece and wide-angled postcolonial panorama, pegged to the inner lives of its central trio – all teenagers followed into adulthood. Meanwhile, sketched between the lines, is family heartache spread over several generations, all 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.It begins by tracing the marital misery that led to one of its characters,...
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