People Who Have Stolen from Me - Softcover

"One of the most important books you will read this year." --"Sunday Times," South Africa "A perceptive and original take on the causes and consequences of South Africa's current crime wave....Social analysis with verve and insight." -"-Kirkus Reviews""Acclaimed British-South African author David Cohen presents a pressing empirical question about South Africa: Just who has stolen from whom? The balance of detachment and intimacy is Cohen's greatest strength...This is not so much a book about crime as it is about relative moralities."--"This Day," South Africa"An important piece of reportage that vividly and sensitively demonstrates how difficult it is for societies, where justice has long been perverted, to change overnight. ...A comprehensive account of the current condition that also does much to explain the failing grade in crime on the national report card."--"Washington Times""Rather than taking a broad sociological approach, Cohen brilliantly uses one store-and its owners, customers, staff, thieves and swindlers-as a microcosm of the greater problem. The strength of Cohen's characterizations and narrative provide for a portrait of the new South Africa that many will find illuminating, fascinating and, sadly, universal."--"Publishers Weekly" "A startlingly refreshing examination of the new South Africa's cathartic rebirth [and] one of the first books to deal with the story behind the headlines."--"South African Times," London

Brothers-in-law Harry and Jack run a Johannesburg furniture business that is being robbed repeatedly. The investigation of the crime reveals that the perpetrators lie even closer than the proprietors expected--and explores also how the social forces at work in South Africa today have made crime the country's biggest growth industry. Written on the tenth anniversary of the fall of apartheid, "People Who Have Stolen From Me" describes a nation in the throes of rebuilding itself, through the eyes of two witty, perceptive men.