Nigerian-American author Teju Cole’s novel Everyday is for the Thief was released internationally earlier this year.
Originally published in Nigeria in 2007, the book creatively combines fiction, travel writing, art, memory and more. It’s central theme is the return of a young Nigerian living in New York City to Lagos in Nigeria.
The New Yorker has shared an excerpt from the book, in which the protagonist, on his way to visit an old sweetheart, is flagged down by a corrupt police officer. Read this piece titled “A Hunger Like None Since”:
In December, the dry season, dust drowns the city. But one Friday morning in the third week of the month, it rains heavily for only the second time in the dry season. It is a relief. It makes the roads torturous. Where there were shallow depressions, lakes suddenly appear. Rivulets rage along the roads. The rain falls for an intense half hour just after I head out. On Allen Avenue, through the gray scrim of the rolled-up windows, I see a swarm of lime-green shirts and yellow trousers, lime-green blouses and yellow skirts: students caught in the rain, racing for shelter. These teenagers, thrilled by the weather and by the excitement of running together, are laughing, but are inaudible through the heavy rain drumming on the car roof. I drive slowly through this dream of hurrying bodies.
The rain stops as suddenly as it started. The city is becalmed and devastated as it always is after a downpour. The streets are clear, the air renewed, and I only have to avoid some puddles as I turn off Ikorodu Road. I’m on my way to visit an old friend. I’ll call her Amina. She’s a woman now, the same age as I am, but when I last saw her, she was a girl and I was a boy, and we’d just come past the moment of first love. Our love, a matter of months, has remained with me all these years as one of my few sweet memories of the city. Recently, through email, we found each other again. We didn’t talk about the past, but now I am on my way to visit her.
Book details
- Every Day is for the Thief by Teju Cole
EAN: 9780812995787
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Image courtesy African Success