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    Every Day is for the Thief
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    Every Day is for the Thief
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    Every Day is for the Thief
    Audiobook4 hours

    Every Day is for the Thief

    Written by Teju Cole

    Narrated by Peter Jay Fernandez

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Every Day is for the Thief is an account of a Nigerian in the diaspora who returns home after many years abroad. The book gains its strength as much from its subject matter (contemporary Lagosian life as experienced by a visiting former resident) as from its prose style (reminiscent of John Berger and J.M. Coetzee). Teju Cole's nuanced book explores themes as diverse as the minor joys of daily Lagosian existence and the crudities of contemporary forms of corruption. His work is both a critique and a message of hope to a Nigeria rapidly in transformation.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books Audio
    Release dateJan 1, 2014
    ISBN9781490605210
    Unavailable
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    Reviews for Every Day is for the Thief

    3.5/5

    115 ratings18 reviews

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      I'm not entirely sure what made me check this book out. I was at the library, scouring the fiction section for book bingo books, when I picked this up. Oh, wait! I counted it as a book by an African author, of course. Out of the entire African continent, somehow both of the books I read for book bingo were Nigerian. Hrmmm.

      This is a novel framed as a series of memoir-ish travel essays of a man returning to Nigeria years after moving to the United States for school. This makes the narrator something of an ideal guide to a foreign culture, as he is both native to the culture and an outsider, having been away long enough that many aspects of Nigerian life are no longer taken for granted.

      A short but absorbing look into another culture.
    • 5/5
      This story reads like a kind of diary. A young man from NY returns to Nigeria after years. He tells what he experiences during his three-week vacation. It is not only the encounters with relatives, acquaintances and former friends, who delight him and show on the other hand that he is no longer a part of this system, but also how his old homeland changed during his absence of more than fifteen years or has remained standing. What is most noticeable is the daily corruption. Several times a day you are asked to pay for nonsensical circumstances. It shows the life of the middle class, from which his family originates, as well as those who have to deal with the various everyday inconveniences. But there are the small joys of life. He is also thinking about the past, especially the slavery trade, which is not processed on either side (Nigeria and the USA). The young man is always thinking about whether he should return to Nigeria, but ultimately decides for his new home the USA.This book is written with a lot of love for a home country, with all its fascination of happiness, joy, corruption and all the inconveniences.
    • 4/5
      I believe this is the third book in the last two weeks that I have read that featured an unnamed narrator. So our unnamed narrator returns to his home country Lagos, after a fifteen year absence and he finds so many things that are different. He meets a first cousin, a young lady who was born just before he left the country and he hopes that the country stays together for her sake. He is amazed at the corruption going on everywhere, where people who have jobs are either never paid or paid so little what they can pad their pockets with make a difference between starving or living. He see schemes and plots, police officers arresting people and then letting them go after they have paid enough to the policeman's satisfaction. The cost of graft is just figured into the cost of the item, or the favor the person needs done. In a country with only a 57%percent literacy rate he is amazed to see a young woman reading a challenging work by Michael Ondaatjie and finds the vision incongruous with the rickety bus they are on. Our unnamed narrator is a keen observer, and he shows the reader what it is like to return to a place and find so much changed and even things that have not. The first things I noted when I started reading this short book was the smoothness of his writing. He writes as matter of fact as one speaking. I loved ht pictures included, helped readers not familiar with this country to picture exactly what he is seeing. Never read his first book which I know has won many awards, will most likely seek that one out.ARC from the publisher.
    • 4/5
      A great collection of vignettes. The frustration and impatience with Nigeria still allow for thoughtful reflection on a challenging and dynamic place.
    • 5/5
      Some reviews have complained this is not a novel but a travelogue or memoir, but who cares what it is called. It is a riveting story of one man's journey back to his native country of Nigeria. Crime, unreliable infrastructure, racism, poverty, theft, bribery are everywhere, but so is family, friendship, and energy. It's a country, I'm sure I will not be able to visit. {Although I most certainly was reminded of a visit to South Africa}. Cole has an amazing ability to paint pictures of places through the smallest of details. Loved this book and look forward to more by this author. A wonderful way to spend a lazy summer afternoon
    • 5/5
      Beautifully written, culturally insightful. A Nigerian's unsettling return to a corrupt and dangerous Lagos, after living in New York for 15 years. Think Junot Diaz without the sex.
    • 4/5
      Teju Cole's latest work of fiction reads like the memoir of a writer living in New York City, who returns to Nigeria, the country of his birth for a visit. From the moment he arrives at the airport in Lagos, he revels in the sense of homecoming, but pretty soon, that sense of familiarity wars with a growing sense of feeling like a stranger. His family and friends help explain the changes that have taken place in the country since he left for America, not least the common corrupt practices that have become pervasive in everyday life, from the bribes required by government officials and the police, to gang members who need to be paid off at import warehouses so that drivers of vans carrying goods are able to leave without violence. He takes us to the myriad of internet cafes where, despite a legal notice on the walls warning patrons against fraudulent activity, many of the patrons still blatantly commit email fraud, in the hopes that they will be able to convince just one person that they have inherited millions of dollars and just need a 'small' processing fee in order to release the funds to them.While the writer is pleased to discover a privately funded institution that promotes and develops creative talent in Nigeria, he also despairs that because the students need to provide their own musical instruments which are very expensive, this institution is only really available to the wealthy. In addition, fees are on a different scale if the student is to be taught by a local teacher or one with foreign certifications. The book makes one ponder the complexity of social change and the depths to which humans are able to adapt in order to survive.
    • 4/5
      I think it's an excellent book. It was written seven years ago, but only published now in America in the wake of the success of Open City. It's billed as a novel, but it reminds me of V.S. Naipaul's hybrid works of fiction and non-fiction. It displays the critical, sometimes brutal, honesty of Naipaul, but leavened by a kinder disposition and 21st Century sensibilities. It was a breath of fresh air to read about Nigeria, as well.For me, the work only strikes one false note, when it strays into sentimentality in the very last chapter. There I sensed a first-time author perhaps taking the wrong path by trying to produce the expected, instead of staying true to his instincts. To Cole's lasting credit, that only happens once.He is an amazing talent, and this is a really interesting book.
    • 5/5
      Teju Cole is a man who takes you with him on walks around his life and world. I loved his last book "Open City" and this might be better. He returns to his home, Lagos, Nigeria, after medical training in NYC (the subject of his first book). Everyone wants to go home again and no one gets home alive as they were before they left. The book gives a real feel for the climate in Lagos, both the intense corruption leaching through almost every encounter, and the extreme heat. Most touching are the protagonist's meeting with a childhood friend and with his former lover, now married with a child and missing two fingers from an accident that occurred during one of the daily power outages. He also has to contend with malicious teenage bandits and with his alienation from his European mother and missing his deceased father. Such powerful words and a heartfelt journey to another world, with the finest of guides.
    • 4/5
      I find myself really drawn to African authors and settings. This has both. It's uncomfortable and yet familiar to read about the impossibility of returning to a "home". The nameless narrator tries and his task is even more daunting because the home to which he is attempting a return is another country, another continent. Adding to that the inflitration of corruption at every level and the helplessness which facilitates the corruption makes it an impossibility. Fraught with turmoil written beautifully. Put it down with a complete sense of helplessness at the realities revealed.
    • 5/5
      A narrator who is not Teju Cole, but - like him - grew up in Lagos, Nigeria and then moved overseas, returns for a visit with his extended family. Throughout, he is confronted with corruption, extortion, and near anarchy, and with a degree of culture shock. He toys with the idea of moving back to Nigeria to try to help with the nation's development, but ultimately, he experiences most of the capital as a cultural desert. And yet, he also shares a sense of people living vibrant lives, and there's no contempt in the book, just love and sadness and respect, and occasionally anger.I wondered what reception this book has had in Nigeria, where it was originally published in 2007. The writing is beautiful and subtle, and captures multiple aspects of life in Nigeria, from the way power works, to brutality of vigilante justice, to the rhythm of an economy in which virtually all manufactured consumer goods must be imported from abroad and paid for with foreign exchange. It's a magnificent book.
    • 5/5
      In this lovely little volume, Mr. Cole writes a first-person account of an expat writer's return to Lagos for an extended visit. The hero has been away in the U. K. and the U. S. for nearly two decades. While he knows what has been going on in his home country, he nevertheless is constantly shocked by his experiences. I could relate to the odd culture shock one experiences when moving back home after living abroad. The story is enjoyable and the writing is often beautiful. In addition the book puts a human face on the issues facing Nigeria in a very interesting and thought-provoking way. And yet, and yet. The place exerts an elemental pull on me. There is no end of fascinations. People talk all the time, calling on a sense of reality that is not identical to mine. They have wonderful solutions to some nasty problems; in this I see a nobility of spirit that is rare in the world. But also, there is much sorrow, not only of the dramatic kind but also in the way that difficult economic circumstances wear people down, eroding them, preying on their weaknesses, until they do things that they themselves find hateful, until they are shadows of their best selves.
    • 4/5
      This "novel" reads like a memoir-travelogue hybrid and offers an incisive vignette into the ethos of Nigeria and people of this country. Teju Cole's perspective has been criticized as distant, lacking empathy, and although his nameless narrator suffers from disillusionment, there remains a profound love for this country wherein the state of affairs are objectively lamentable. And yes, in Nigeria, "every day is for the thief" but the theft comes at the hands of government officials, oil companies and other agents of institutional corruption and remains unpunished. In stark contrast, petty theft at the local market is met with the stark violence of a people who have repressed their daily resentments and sublimated their own violations into a most harsh form of brutality. However, it is from this landscape of brutality and daily humiliation that innovative art emerges, according to Cole. His nameless narrator admits to "a vague pity for all those writers who have to ply their trade from sleepy American suburbs, writing divorce scenes symbolized by the very slow washing of dishes".Cole's prose will keep you captivated from beginning to end. His observations oscillate from acerbic to humor and the juxtaposition of these emotions is weaved into the narrative seamlessly. If you are looking for novel with straightforward plot and well developed characters, this piece is not for you. But if you want insight into the Nigeria of 2007, a Nigeria who has been through so many coups, bloodshed and woes that it seems uprooted from a sense of "history", Cole's novel is the one for you. After all what is Nigeria? Cole's answer: " A cipher enclosed in a riddle."
    • 3/5
      I gave this book three stars, but that’s really just because I’m not sure what to make of it. Maybe it deserves one, or five. As others have noted, Every Day is for the Thief reads like a memoir/travelogue. The language is eloquent and precise, but the plot isn’t especially gripping. Some of the narrator’s observations feel insightful, while others come across as a bit generic and underdeveloped. A lot of readers have commented that they suspect Cole and the narrator are essentially the same person, and that this is a “novel” in name only. Part of me shares this suspicion, while another part of me suspects that there is more, perhaps much more, going on with this book.Open City, Cole’s other novel, is similar in many ways to Every Day is for the Thief. That book also consists of a narrator’s many observations about a city in which he lives and wanders, in this case New York. However, in Open City, the sum total of all these observations is not a portrait of New York so much as it is a portrait of a deeply troubled narrator with a limited understanding of his own history and identity.In Open City, Cole makes it obvious that his narrator isn’t entirely reliable, but no such clarity exists with Every Day is for The Thief. On the contrary, the book almost begs to be taken at face value. However, a few small details make me think it might be advisable to do otherwise. For instance, why is it that the narrator, a psychiatrist with an admitted draw to “the talking cure,” devotes only a few brief lines to his relationship with a deceased father and an estranged mother? And why does the final chapter somehow feel just a bit different than the rest of the book? And what the hell is up with all these guys in sky blue hats?!I’m not saying I’ve got this book all figured out. Maybe I’m reading way too much into it, or trying to preserve a false idea about the type of writer I thought Cole was. Still, I can’t shake the feeling that the most important story in this book is the one that isn’t being told.
    • 4/5
      Teju Cole’s provocative short novel is a mixture of memoir, travelogue and meditation on Nigeria. The photos included by the author strongly suggest that his claim of this being fiction may be disingenuous. The unnamed narrator returns to Nigeria after 15 years in the US only to find that it and he both have changed. He now views his country with fresh eyes acquired in America. He muses that “going home should be a thing of joy” but instead he sees rampant corruption, a thin veneer of wealth overlying neglect and poverty and a population engaging in extensive amounts of magical thinking and denial.The narrator is ambivalent about his view of his people: on the one hand he seriously considers returning and has a strong sense of belonging, while on the other he can critique the Nigerians’ embracing the concept of "idea l’ need” (all we need is the concept-details are not important and can be ignored). In spite of being rated as one of the happiest peoples on the planet, Nigerians indulge in much magical thinking and denial, leaving them with a strong sense of the fragility of their situation and a need to be constantly vigilant. Cole abundantly illustrates these Nigerian traits in his novel: young men conducting “advance fee fraud” in Internet cafes under per forma signs warning against the practice and guards bribed to overlook it; a bumper sticker stating that "God is in control” because no one else is; poor maintenance of aircraft and national art treasures; toleration of bribe-seeking officials; constant power outages with the need for generators. The narrator seems wistful about his observations and the biggest disappointment in the book seems to be the lack of analysis and possible solutions. Are these things inevitable in a largely corrupt society or just something that is ingrained in the Nigerian consciousness?
    • 3/5
      I enjoyed Every Day is for the Thief, but I wasn’t wowed by it. I can see why Teju Cole is hailed as a great writer, but the format of this book just got in the way. It is written in almost a memoir style, and I found myself checking midway through to make sure that it was in fact a work of fiction. It is very introspective with more telling than showing. A sort of a day-in-the-life book in which the author takes the reader along from one place to another. He does a good job of portraying the country’s corruption, so that you feel as though you are witnessing it firsthand, but each encounter is merely a stand-alone glimpse rather than part of any larger story. For someone without general knowledge of the corruption in Nigeria this would be a real eye-opener. Even knowing of the Internet scams, and some of the criminal mentality that exists there, I had no idea how widespread it was, or that it is just taken for granted as a normal way of life.The things I liked the most were the keen observations on things such as Nigeria’s disconnect from reality, how it can simultaneously be one of the most religious, happiest and corrupt places in the world. Along the same lines was a part about reason versus superstition and the cultural impact on a society that values one over the other. The author had a masterful way of expressing these ideas.I am glad I had a couple days to let it sink in before writing my review. I was initially a bit underwhelmed, but when I found myself discussing this book later on I knew it was a sign that it had a deeper impact on me than I’d first thought. I will definitely read another book by this author. I have had Open City, on my to-read list since it came out, and I am still looking forward to reading it someday soon. Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book via NetGalley.com in exchange for my review.
    • 5/5
      I love an author who can write in precise, sparse language with eloquence and that is what Teju Cole does in his second novel. It’s clear that that the praise of his writing is well-deserved. There are few authors who can pack so much meaning into less than 170 pages. The unnamed narrator returns to Lagos, Nigeria after living in the United States for many years. I read this book after reading a entry from Humans of New York about a man who had tried to go home and start a NGO working with people to show them how to move to democracy, but found only failure because the system of graft and lawlessness was so acculturated. But what amazed me was the cultural diversity and lack of religious animosity. If one only knows about Nigeria from the news, one would think that religious hostility was a part of daily life. Cole shows that cultural climate strongly in this short book. Keep writing, Mr. Cole!
    • 4/5
      not much plot, reads like a memoir. But great insight into how it feels to be a returned ex-pat to Nigeria after living in the US for many years. Very good description of how corruption is the grease that keeps it all moving