'Nobody writes about the world we call postcolonial like Abdulrazak Gurnah. His novels are uncompromising, but also stubbornly humane. They come at their subjects with open eyes, and we need what they see' (Juan Gabriel Vásquez)

'Theft is marvelous - a book of incredible scope and unflinching intimacy that leaps fearlessly among its varied cast of characters, written with absolutely devastating emotional precision. Abdulrazak Gurnah has written another classic' (V V Ganeshananthan)

'Modesty and modest people are so hard to write about wittily and well yet Abdulrazak Gurnah luminously portrays the early years of a modest young man of no obvious importance. Theft is a morality tale in the truest sense: an unshowy, vividly evocative story about the things that matter, and the flimflam that really doesn’t' (Patrick Gale)

'Theft is not just a book. It is an entire universe held together by Abdulrazak Gurnah's beautiful, sensitive prose. In the stories of Badar, Fauzia and Karim rest the questions of entire generations confronting a changing world. But Gurnah also manages to do what only the most accomplished of writers can: In these pages, we begin to recognize the generosity that remains even in moments of pain and chaos. We understand the pockets of light that still exist in those most turbulent days. Gurnah has done it again' (Maaza Mengiste)