Every Day Is for the Thief

In this arresting audiobook, which carries the authority of memoir while providing the insights and satisfactions of fiction, a young Nigerian doctor returns to Lagos after an absence of 15 years, wondering if he might live there again. But life in the West has changed him more than he had realized; the level of larceny and corruption considered commonplace shocks him, even though it's not really a surprise. The ambiguity of the book's genre leaves narrator Peter Jay Fernandez with subtle choices. Is he creating drama or delivering reportage? He hits it exactly right, presenting each sentence with careful attention, as if each one is illuminating his experience of the world, as it is for the protagonist. And so also for the reader. A fascinating listen. B.G. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine

April 14, 2014
Novelist Cole's Open City brought him international attention, but this novel, first published in Nigeria and now currently being republished in the U.S. and the U.K., was actually his first. Set in contemporary Lagos, Nigeria, the novel follows a nameless narrator's visit to his homeland after a lengthy stay in the United States. Estranged from his mother and unemotional about his father's death, the protagonist seeks his humanity and redemption in art. Cole's crisp language captures how Lagosâthe home of numerous Internet scams and frequent power cutsâpossesses a violence that both disgusts his protagonist and fascinates him. With journalism-like objectivity, Cole by way of his narrator details a Nigeria that is violent and corrupt, but also multi-cultural and alive. This pared-down writing style comes at the cost of character development. (For example, the narrator's training as a psychiatrist is never really explored.) As a result, the novel reads more like a beautiful work of creative nonfiction. The structure is loose, a collection of observances of daily life in Lagos in which Cole presents the complexities of culture and poverty. In addition, Cole sprinkles dramatic black-and-white photos throughout the book, but it's his willingness to explore so many uncomfortable paradoxes that sears this narrative into our brains. Agent: Andrew Wylie, The Wylie Agency.

August 1, 2014

When a young Nigerian man from New York visits family in Lagos, he is confronted with a city different from the one he remembers from 15 years earlier. Told in a series of short scenes, the young man's journey is chronicled from the infuriating Nigerian consulate in New York City to the multitude of people he encounters in Lagos and finally his journey back to America. In poetic language, the narrator describes the energy of Lagos, including bribing police officers, cheating gas station attendants, children waiting in line for precious water, riding a motor bike taxi through dangerous streets, and enduring the noise of generators and the stiflingly humid heat. During his visit, the young man finds that he has changed as much as Lagos. The vignettes are interesting, amusing, frightening, and strange in turns. Peter Jay Fernandez communicates the lassitude and heat of Lagos and its inhabitants as well as the frustration of the main character with his new view of the world. VERDICT A languorous but engaging listen. Recommended to fans of Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart.--Terry Ann Lawler, Phoenix P.L.

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