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 [Published: APRIL 2014]