Now You See Me: An illustrated collection of short memoirs by Kitui dJo Thefu
KShs1,600.00 KShs1,350.00
A curated cocktail of everyday tales, written over a seven-year period, which have evolved into short memoirs of Thefu, a non-recovering artcoholic and storyteller. His tales are wide-ranging: whacky dreams, observing a chicken lay an egg, destroying beautiful women’s property, loss, sombre heartbreaks, philosophical musings over dog behaviour, social commentaries—and everything in between.
Thefu grew up in rural Kenya a quiet, introverted boy, who got out of trouble with brain rather than brawn. His stories reveal a heightened sense of observation, and an ability to find meaning and humour, even in fleeting and seemingly mundane events.
This is an intimate glimpse into his perception of the world, and he means it when he says, Now You See Me.
Chief, the NuriaStore bookseller –
The book is written in a diary format which I found to be pretty interesting and it makes the reading experience different.
We start off with the journal entries of Thefu and his motorbike, that he use to cruise in the streets of Nairobi. now you see me is about how the author sees his day to day life. Author is a great observer and brings out the experience and how he goes about it from his first accident, interviews and the COVID-19 problems that came with face masks and communication.
My favorite part in the book was definitely, the part he was involved in an accident and while at the hospital he acts normal and no pain when the beautiful nurse comes to examine his condition.
You’ll enjoy the book because of its great humour. It talks about what happens on a day to day basis on what a normal Nairobian rat race life. This is one of the hilarious memoirs that you would want to read, how the author gives the descriptions of how his day went.
This is a quick read as it’s stories are two – three pages. My favourite chapter was chapter one: “Life Is Hard, and I can relate to it and say Life Is Not a Hack; Who Should Decide How You Are Going To Live, should be you.
Sylvia –
It has been quite an experience reading this book. From the cover page and the preview I knew that I would be in for a great ride; the author did not disappoint.
The illustrations are amazing. DJo is so talented! And he is also committed to what he does, no wonder he gets all these opportunities.
Now to the actual content… I have scratched my head trying to point out my favourite story and to be honest, it is not an easy task. These stories are all so raw and relatable. The author has used a style of writing that can be followed by all. And no matter how short or long the story is, he manages to add some humour in it and that is just so remarkable about how he sees life. Nevertheless, I know I’ll read ‘Mr. Preacherman’ a couple of more times than the other chapters. Kudos!
Ciku Kimani-Mwaniki –
I have no memory of ever being sold to a book by the intro; usually it takes the first four paragraphs- until I picked DJo’s book.
What he has done is master the art of making fun of himself, in a hilarious way. He lets us, through snippets, into his life – and nearly nothing is sacred. He makes his mess funny. What it is, is tasteful, and did I say funny? ‘now you see me’ is not a collection of short stories, it is not flash fiction either – it’s very, very short memoirs – some told in just a hundred words but they all hit the funny bone. It’s something more real, something we can all identify with, only we cannot tell it the way Djo does.
And the illustrations, ones he has done himself, kinda tells where his passion lies.
Highly, highly recommended