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.

BIO

Abdulrazak Gurnah is the 2021 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. He is the author of ten previous novels, including Afterlives (named a 2022 Best Book of the Year by the New York Times, Washington Post, TIME, and The New Yorker), Paradise (shortlisted for the Booker Prize), By the Sea (longlisted for the Booker Prize and a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize), and Desertion. Born and raised in Zanzibar, he is Professor Emeritus of English and Postcolonial Literatures at the University of Kent. He lives in Canterbury, England.

REVIEWS

“Theft takes many forms intimate and cultural, subtle and obvious in the newest web of interconnected lives masterfully spun by Nobel laureate Gurnah… Written with transfixing precision, wit, insight, and suspense, Theft is profoundly nuanced and revealing.” -- Booklist, starred review

“Gurnah is a captivating, enthralling storyteller whose characters are vibrant and sympathetic. The pages fly by quickly in his wonderful new novel.” -- Library Journal, starred review

“Nobel Prize-winning novelist Gurnah delivers a story whose title reverberates throughout. . . No word is wasted. . .A tightly constructed family drama with surprising complications.” -- Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“At once culturally specific and emotionally universal. . . Gurnah is at the top of his game.” -- Publishers Weekly, starred review

[H]  Riverhead Books  /  March 18, 2025

1.19" H x 9.28" L x 6.35" W (0.98 lbs) 304 pages