Theft (Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature): A Novel [Hardcover]

Named a Washington Post Top 10 Fiction Book of 2025

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.

Praise for Theft

“Theft is complex in its themes of class and entitlement, but it’s also, fundamentally, a piece of great, satisfying storytelling to lose yourself in.”—Samantha Harvey in The Guardian

Beautifully done . . .By the time his story is complete — when the cord connecting everything is finally tied on the very last page — the reader can only rejoice at Gurnah’s skill. —Financial Times

“A tightly focused, beautifully controlled examination of friendship and betrayal.” —The Economist

“A vital addition to Gurnah’s remarkable body of work; a novel steeped in heartbreak and loss but one that ultimately refuses despair. —The Guardian

“Entirely engrossing. . .There are no single tl³Û