Fiction Friday: Extract from Everyday is for the Thief by Teju Cole
Teju Cole’s Open City has had little break from media attention every since it’s release last year – it even has a dedicated Tumblr page.
While the book is widely considered to be the author’s debut novel, Cole’s true debut, Everyday is for the Thief, was released in Nigeria as early as 2007.
As next month will see the release of Open City in paperback, we thought it fitting to bring you an excerpt from Everyday is for the Thief, Cole’s less publicised first. The following extract appeared in the second issue of African Cities Reader:
One goes to the market to participate in the world. As with all things that concern the world, being in the market requires caution. Always, the market – as the essence of the city – is alive with possibility and with danger. Strangers encounter each other in the world’s infinite variety; vigilance is needed. Everyone is there not merely to buy or sell, but because it is a duty. If you sit in your house, if you refuse to go to market, how would you know of the existence of others? How would you know of your own existence?
When I start speaking Yoruba, the man I’ve been haggling with over some carved masks laughs nervously. ‘Ah oga,’ he says, ‘I didn’t know you knew the language, I took you for an oyinbo, or an Ibo man!’ I’m irritated. What subtle flaws of dress or body language have, again, given me away? This kind of thing didn’t happen when I lived here, when I used to pass through this very market on my way to my exam preparation lessons.
The Tejuosho bus stop is a stone’s throw from where I stand. It is a tangle of traffic – mostly danfos and molues – that one might be tempted to describe as one of the densest spots of
human activity in the city, if only there weren’t so many others: Ojuelegba, Ikeja, Oshodi, Isolo, Ketu, Ojota.
- Keep reading: African Cities Reader (pdf download)
Book details
- Every Day is for the Thief by Teju Cole
Book homepage
EAN: 9789780805159
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- Open City by Teju Cole
EAN: 9780571279432
Find this book with BOOK Finder!
Photo courtesy Radio Open Source
Apr
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