Theft: Stories

The path from Europe to Africa has been much traveled in literature but rarely in such an evocative, nuanced, and even playful way as in N.S. Koenings's THEFT. Here are five seductive tales that move with grace and subtlety between the two continents and reveal with insight and wit that what seem to be very separate worlds are not so far apart after all. In Pearls to Swine, a lonely childless socialite invites her American goddaughter to spend the summer in her mansion. In Wondrous Strange, a spirit medium is haunted by the ghost of an ancient African djinn. In Setting Up Shop, a young Zanzibari woman dreams of traveling to the U.S., even as a local entrepeneur courts her relentlessly, even promising to leave his other wives for her.

More praise for The Blue Taxi:

The world Koenings has created in her accomplished debut is tragic and exhilarating, as is her portrayal of weary, left-behind colonialists, poverty-stricken natives and the uneasy manner in which each regards the other. --Publishers Weekly

Koenings skillfully weaves together the stories of individuals from disparate cultures converging in a city that is entering a new era of political independence. --The New Yorker

Author: N. S. Koenings
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Published: 03/01/2008
Pages: 288
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.56lbs
Size: 8.24h x 5.44w x 0.77d
ISBN: 9780316001861

Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 01/15/2008 pg. 62
Publishers Weekly 01/21/2008 pg. 153
New York Times Book Review 03/30/2008 pg. 27

About the Author
N.S. Köenings holds a B.A. in African Studies from Bryn Mawr College and a Ph.D. in socio-cultural anthropology from Indiana University, where she also completed her M.F.A. in fiction. She currently teaches at Hampshire College.