The following is an excerpt from Abdulrazak Gurnah’s novel  Theft , out next week from Riverhead Books in the US and Bloomsbury in the UK. Raya’s marriage happened in a panic. Her father found out that a young man was paying unmistakable attention to her, at first with long looks and a knowing smile as he walked by, then he saw with his own eyes how the young man stopped her in the street and held her in conversation for several minutes, probably making impossible promises and arranging an assignation. This all happened in front of him. It was improper and ill‑mannered behavior, and disrespectful to him, the father. He knew who the young man was, which was why the attentions to Raya alarmed him. It would have been even worse if he was a stranger, of course, but this was calamity enough.…