Every Day Is for the Thief

A national bestseller and bookseller favorite: the “extraordinary” (San Francisco Chronicle), “shimmering” (The Seattle Times) story of a young Nigerian living in New York City who returns to Lagos in search of a home he no longer recognizes.

For readers of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, JM Coetzee, and Michael Ondaatje, Every Day Is for the Thief is a wholly original work of fiction by Teju Cole, whose critically acclaimed debut, Open City, was the winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and was named one of the best books of the year by more than twenty publications. Visiting Lagos after many years away, Teju Cole’s unnamed narrator rediscovers his dynamic hometown as both a foreigner and a local. Along the way, he reconnects with old school friends and his family, who force him to ask himself profound questions of personal and national history. In spare, precise prose that sees humanity everywhere, interwoven with original photos by the author, Every Day Is for the Thief is unlike anything you’ve read before. That’s because no one writes like Teju Cole.