Examine the symbolic geography of Zanzibar and Dar es Salaam. What imagery is associated with each location, and how does this support their narrative role(s)?

Analyze how Raya and, later, Fauzia navigate and resist patriarchal expectations within the social structures of post-revolutionary Tanzania.

Theft can be read as a Bildungsroman, or novel of formation, for both Karim and Badar. How does Gurnah adapt or subvert the conventions of this traditionally European genre to explore the specific challenges of identity formation in a postcolonial context?

Discuss how the dynamics of power and obligation are reflected in the architecture and implicit rules of locations such as Haji and Othman’s home, Ali and Jalila’s house, and the Tamarind Hotel.

What parallels exist between the Othmans’ patronage of Badar and the neocolonial dynamics of the tourism industry? What distinguishes these different forms of dependency, if anything?

What does the novel suggest about the power of storytelling to both heal and harm? How does the story that the novel itself tells fit into this dynamic?

Several characters fantasize about or imagine traveling to Europe—Hawa to Switzerland, Badar to England, Karim to Denmark, etc. How do these fantasies intersect with the novel’s neocolonial dynamics?

Which “theft” do you think the title is principally referring to? What links the different forms of theft that the novel portrays?