Folio. FURT.

The year 2000 draws near. Three young people in Zanzibar face quite different futures. Karim, Fauzia and Badar share hopes for their country. But Badar has few chances. He works as a servant and has no schooling. He has never known his parents.

Badar finds work with a rich family in Dar es Salaam. For the first time, he feels he has a home. He makes friends with Karim, the owner's son. A false charge costs Badar his job. Yet Karim and Fauzia stand by him at first. Love and desire then test their ties. So do work and their roles as parents. Karim later betrays their trust, changing all three lives.

This novel follows young people as they grow into adults. It looks at friendship, class and unfair treatment. It also asks how choices shape a life. Each has a different view of how much they can shape their fate. Abdulrazak Gurnah asks what holds people close and drives them apart. He also shows how kindness can last through pain and change.

The novel's first title was Theft. It forms part of the Folio series. This is Gurnah's first novel since he won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2021. He was born in 1948. He taught English at the University of Kent and lives in Canterbury. His work looks at colonial rule in East Africa. It also explores the lives of people forced from their homes.