Description
People Who Have Stolen From Me by David Cohen is a sharp, insightful memoir and work of narrative journalism set in post-apartheid South Africa. A decade after the fall of the apartheid regime, the country is navigating its complex transition towards democracy, but a surge in crime and property theft casts a long shadow over its aspirations. Through the lens of Jules Street — Johannesburg’s longest straight street and a hotbed of petty crime — Cohen paints an intimate portrait of a nation in flux.
The book follows the fortunes of two charismatic furniture store owners, Harry Sher and Jack Rubin, whose business becomes a microcosm for the tensions and contradictions of the new South Africa. As former carjackers, petty thieves, and conmen weave in and out of their world, Cohen examines the uneasy coexistence of victims and perpetrators in a society still reckoning with the legacies of inequality. He ventures beyond the surface of crime statistics to uncover the personal stories, moral dilemmas, and survival tactics that shape daily life on Jules Street.
Blending memoir, social commentary, and investigative journalism, People Who Have Stolen From Me is a candid and often darkly humorous account of modern South Africa. It’s a compelling read for anyone interested in true crime, post-apartheid society, or the moral complexities of justice and survival in a fractured world.
