419
Ferguson, WillWhen Henry Curtis' involvement with an Internet scam leads to his death, his daughter Laura is bent on revenge. Her journey to uncover the deception takes her from Canada to Nigeria and back again, from a world of relative privilege to poverty ... and back again.
Both riveting and thought-provoking, this is a story of greed, corruption and justice of the international oil industry, and what it takes to survive in a hostile world. [Larger font]
Pages
399
399
Year
2012
2012
Reviews
16-11-2023
Members found this to be quite a hard read, but during the extensive discussion, many changed their minds about the book, and comments changed from from negative, to realising that the book requires 'big picture' thinking, and understanding about the effects/remnants of colonialism.
18-07-2023
All found the book well-written and easy to read, although Laura's escapades in Nigeria a little unlikely. We felt Nnamdi and Amina's stories meandered a bit, and the emails by Winston too clumsy to have been effective. However this book gave a great overview of the tough life in the Delta, and the damage done by Western multi-nationals.
20-06-2022
Fascinating insight into Nigeria, and how scams occur.
04-06-2022
We had a good discussion but few of us read the entire book and no one rated it it very highly. Although the subject was topical and the "Nigerian thing" was "fascinating" other comments were that it was "fluffy" and that it "lacked a common thread" and became "quite confusing".
05-05-2022
Our discussion very much echoed the comments made in the notes i.e. too many scenarios which could have been made into three different books! Individually, the different aspects led to a good discussion.
12-06-2019
Really interesting to learn about Nigeria, a little bit of its history, and what oil has meant and done to that country. There are a lot of stories in the story which is a little bit disjointed but also great stories and characters. We all enjoyed it and talked more about this book than many others and, yes, we had personal stories about scammers too.
10-09-2018
Will Ferguson has written a fascinating multi-thread story, with a complicated group of well drawn characters, in both Canada and Nigeria. From scams to oil production, and the effect on people. Enjoyed by all.
16-07-2018
Not one of our favourites. We all found it of interest, but many didn't enjoy the style - a fairly confusing narrative and unconvincing ending.
16-07-2018
'419' provided plenty of discussion. Amazing how many of us had personal stories of scammers. This one's rating was a 4.
16-07-2018
Interesting discussion about the motivation of Nigerian scammers, as we don't think about peoples' motives when we receive all those emails.
16-07-2018
Easy read. Not considered a typical 'thriller'. A story of many plots and difficult to connect them all. Interesting that Nigeria's oil industry has grown on the profits of scamming. We enjoyed a good discussion.
25-05-2018
A good read overall - some comments made about the disjointed stories. No one is going to Nigeria!
25-05-2018
Some of our group couldn't finish the book, as they found it jumped around too much and became confusing. Those who persevered found the subject, namely scamming, very topical.
25-05-2018
We couldn't say we really enjoyed this book, BUT found it informative with clever interweaving of the different characters' stories. One member commented that politics was another character in the book. Very well researched. It was described as distressing, disturbing, sad and a warning for us with the themes of greed and exploitation, and political and oil company corruption.
25-05-2018
Interesting stories that linked together by the end of the book. Intriguing to see the other side of Nigerian email scammers, and the effects of the oil companies on the Nigerian delta. Most of the group read this book and an interesting discussion followed. We recommend this to other groups.
25-05-2018
Despite the accolades showered on '419', the consensus from the group was that the story didn't come across as a gripping page turner. It was the travel writing that gripped the reader's attention, as most were unfamiliar with Nigeria and its variable terrains, ranging from deserts to mangrove swamps.