Through a series of cinematic portraits of everyday life in Lagos, Teju Cole provides a fresh approach to the returnee experience.Īuthor: Teju Cole | Print ISBN: 978-9780805159 | Format: Flapped paperback | No. The question is: should he stay or should he leave?īut before the story can even begin, he has to queue for his visa…Įvery Day is for the Thief is a striking portrait of Nigeria in change. He admires the grace of an aunty, bereaved by armed robbers and is inspired by the new malls and cultural venues. He is captivated by a woman reading on a danfo attempts to check his email are frustrated by Yahoo boys he is charmingly duped buying fuel. Ahead lies the difficult journey back to the family house and all its memories meetings with childhood friends and above all, facing up to the paradox of Nigeria, whose present is as burdened by the past as it is facing a new future.Īlong the way, our narrator encounters life in Lagos. He tells of the moment when his life changed forever and the ensuing struggle that made him a man, a man who knows the value of poetry, silence and freedom, a man who is still dancing.Ī young man decides to visit Nigeria after years of absence. Waberi remembers the shifting desert of Djibouti, the Red Sea, the shanty roofs of the houses in his neighborhood, an immense loneliness and some unforgettable characters: Papa-la-Tige who sold baubles to tourists, his tough, silent mother Zahra who trembled, and his grandmother nicknamed Cochise.
They called him a skinflint and a runt, but he was the smartest kid in his school. It was a place of sunlight and dust and sickness, a sickness that made him different, unique.
Why does her father limp, why can’t he ride a bicycle or a scooter? Her father feels compelled to answer, to bring back the memories of his childhood in Djibouti and tell her what happened to his leg. One morning in Paris on the way to kindergarten, a little girl asks her father “Papa, why do you dance when you walk?” The question is innocent and serious.
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