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419
419
419
Audiobook13 hours

419

Written by Will Ferguson

Narrated by Pete Bradbury

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

()

About this audiobook

Will Ferguson takes readers deep into the labyrinth of lies that is " 419," winner of the 2012 Scotiabank Giller Prize. A car tumbles through darkness down a snowy ravine. A woman without a name walks out of a dust storm in sub-Saharan Africa. And in the seething heat of Lagos City, a criminal cartel scours the Internet, looking for victims. Lives intersect. Worlds collide. And it all begins with a single email: " Dear Sir, I am the daughter of a Nigerian diplomat, and I need your help" When Laura Curtis, a lonely editor in a cold northern city, discovers that her father has died because of one such swindle, she sets out to track down-- and corner-- her father' s killer. It is a dangerous game she' s playing, however, and the stakes are higher than she can ever imagine. Woven into Laura' s journey is a mysterious woman from the African Sahel with scars etched into her skin and a young man who finds himself caught up in a web of violence and deceit. And running through it, a dying father' s final words: " You, I love."
LanguageEnglish
Release dateNov 8, 2013
ISBN9781470393601
419
Author

Will Ferguson

WILL FERGUSON is a three-time winner of the Leacock Medal for Humour. His novels include his debut, HappinessTM, which sold in twenty-three languages; 419, which won the Scotiabank Giller Prize; and The Finder, which won the 2021 Arthur Ellis Award for Crime Fiction. With his brother, Ian, he is the co-author of the mega-bestseller How to Be a Canadian. Will Ferguson lives in Calgary.

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Reviews for 419

Rating: 3.7099567160173166 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

231 ratings41 reviews

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Quick changes in the narrative keeps the novel moving quickly. It's a well told story that gives two perspectives on western greed from inside and outside Nigeria. A good listen.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Great and apt writing,very descriptive and very accurate settings. Thumbs up!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    In 419, Ferguson has created a juxtaposition of worlds that will grip you from the first page to the last.In Calgary, police investigate the car tracks which lead to a fatal plunge through the guardrails. In Lagos, Nigeria, young shysters pack internet shops to write emails to rich Westerners from Nigerian Diplomats (a crime known by its Nigerian criminal code number, 419). In northern Nigeria, a young marked woman walks south for survival. In the oil-rich Niger Delta, trees are bulldozed and old traditions come to an end as multinational oil companies move in.My first exposure to Ferguson was his travel narrative of Japan, Hitching Rides With Buddha. Although he's also known as a comic writer, humor takes a back seat in 419. He uses his skills as a travel writer to make the various locations come alive.While 419 is a page-turner, there's far more to it than an average mystery novel. Ferguson has so fully fleshed-out the various settings and character perspectives, you will turn the chapter only to find yourself sympathizing with the villain.Another fine element of this book was the conclusion (which I won't give away). While it's incredibly satisfying, it's also unexpected. From a Christian perspective, it was fittingly redemptive. That's all I can say about that!If you read fiction, buy and read 419. Just be sure to set aside enough time to finish it. You will not want to put it down.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A masterful, brilliant story that provides readers with a view of our world, one filled with the consequences of our evil. Unharnessed greed and its cost world-wide are explored with poignancy, detail, and surprise. This riveting read explores the idea that the consequences of injustice are far flung and oft repeated until those who escape find a way to make peace - mostly inside themselves, mostly by their own good decisions and personal resolve.
    Eleanor Cowan, author of : A History of a Pedophile's Wife
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    419 by Canadian author Will Ferguson is an intricate and compelling international crime story that gathers momentum as it goes along. The author is peeling back the layers behind a real-life internet scam that swindles the life savings from it’s victims. Henry Curtis, retired teacher from Calgary, Alberta swerves his car into a snowy ravine, leaving behind a devastated family. It is revealed that Henry was a victim of a 419 Nigerian scam and that his death is being ruled a suicide. His daughter, Laura, sets out to track down the people she considers her father’s killers not realizing the extreme danger she is putting herself in. But there is much more to 419 than this one story, the author gives us a detailed picture of the country of Nigeria by introducing a number of other characters, telling their backstory and showing the desperation and poverty that is rife in this country. I was riveted by this book and felt rewarded by the excellence of the story and the writing. Will Ferguson is better known as a travel writer and humorist, but he certainly put together an interesting and well researched thriller with this book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This was a weird one for me. Absolutely NOT my normal read. While I do feel the book may have been a touch overlong, with some character stories running longer than they really needed (mostly due to a bit too much backstory), overall, even with the meandering story, it was almost always engaging.

    The story does take you for a ride. Just when you think it's a murder mystery, it changes gears. Then you think it's this. Then that. Then back to the murder mystery...

    Sometimes the storytelling POV did a strange flip partway through a scene that was a touch off-putting, but it was rare.

    Overall though, it was the characters that made this book, that grabbed me and wouldn't let me go, long after a less well-written book would have been set aside.

    As I said, not my normal read and not a story I'd be quick to jump back into again, but I did enjoy it.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    While the concept of the book was fascinating - email money scams - I found some of it to be a little unbelievable. This is a very serious situation that takes place all the time and it was interesting to understand the back story of who it works in Africa. However I found some of the situations of the major character a little far fetched. Some of the risks she took likely wouldn't have turned out the way they did in the book. It was an enjoyable story but it takes some suspension of belief to read.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Laura gets a phone call one day saying that her father has had a crash and has been found dead. As the police start to investigate the crash not all is as it seems, and then they discover he has been the victim of a 419 scam, the begging emails that originate from Nigeria

    Nnamdi is the son of the chief, and manages to get a job with shell in the oil fields in Nigeria, but he is tempted away by the profits offered by theft of oil and gas, where he puts he is engineering training to good use.

    Amina is on the run, and is pregnant too. As she struggles through the desert, existing on water and air almost she manages to meet Nnamdi who takes pity on her, and brings her to Lagos.

    Laura decides that she is going to go after the perpetrator of the scam and get her fathers money back so she heads to Nigera.

    This is a modern tale of fraud, betrayal of three intertwined live and and of one person seeking justice. It intertwines three peoples lives in a fairly unique story, but it didn't really do so much for me. The scenes in Lagos are very edgy but a little contrived in some ways. It is a shame as it could have been so much more tense.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    What an intriguing look into the murky world of internet money scams. The story weaves the tales of a Nigerian delta boy, a pregnant northern african woman and a Calgary family into a scary cautionary tale that gives an unflinching look that the chaos and destruction the western world has brought to Nigeria; the results of which created the world of the 419ers.
    Unputdownable!
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    4-1-9 is a serious problem in africa, specifically, the country of Nigeria. 4-1-9 is when someone sends an email, usually going to the spam folder, hoping to hook an idiot into sending them some money. usually they will open with lines such as "I am a Nigerian Diplomat in great danger" or "You have been contacted as next of kin to a deceased relative".

    These swindles often gain the crook in the millions if they target the right people. This book is a good gateway to learning of the dangers that exist in africa. And why it is never a smart plan to try and get lost money back, not all can be so lucky as Laura.

    Not going to tell a fib. This book was so dull and disappointing. It took me the entire month to read it. Laura was such a heartless and monstrous bitch in the end. I get that she was grieving, but what she did was unforgivable. Can't help feeling good where the money went in the end, though.

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A riveting plot that deals with exploiting and being exploited -- in person, over the internet, by major companies, by people trapped with no other options.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    It is probably a very rare individual – someone who either: 1) does not have an email account; 2) has an absolutely amazing spam filter; or 3) lives “off the grid” – who has not received what is generally referred to as a “phishing” email. Phishing emails take many forms, but at their heart, they are emails purporting to be from reputable companies/individuals seeking to induce the receiver of the email to either disclosure personal information, click on a link provided that will enable the sender to control/damage the individual’s computer or, as is the case with Ferguson’s novel [419], to obtain money or goods under false pretenses. [419] is an interesting read. Part police procedural, part autopsy of a familiar Nigerian email scam and part cautionary tale for any who might seek revenge by attempting to scam the scammer, Ferguson’s novel starts out a bit convoluted as he creates four distinct narratives: Laura, a reclusive copy editor and daughter of an e-mail scam victim; Winston, the educated but futureless Nigerian email scammer; Amina, a pregnant woman fleeing her northern Nigerian tribal ties for a promise of new life in the southern cities and Nnamdi, a fisherman’s son co-oped to work as a “mechanic” in the petroleum black market in the lawless frontiers of Nigeria. This story is an ambitious examination of the complexities of reparative justice. Ferguson does a great job depicting a divergent cast of characters who are all shaped by the email scam industry. He also does a fantastic job presenting Nigeria so that the reader can “experience” the country through his story, but the overall effect is a bit of a literary mess. I found the myriad of story lines detracted the overall story from the book’s main focus. A number of the characters are underdeveloped, all of them – with the exception of Laura’s boorish brother – coming across as weak or weakened individuals with idealized views that do not fit with the circumstances they find themselves in. As much as I enjoyed Amina’s and Nnamdi’s stories, they do not appear to be ancillary to the main story, or at least not in a way that would explain the amount of focus – roughly half of the book – Ferguson gives them. I felt more frustration than satisfaction by the end of the story. Frustration that Ferguson’s attempt to present a story from the point of view of both victims and perpetrators comes cross lacking the earnestness Ferguson tries to convey. I also do not see [419] as a dark literary thriller unless we go a bit low key with the ‘thriller’ classification and go mainstream with the ‘literary’ classification. I am also a bit surprised that this one won the 2012 Giller Prize, beating out, among others, Kim Thuy’s [Ru], which I absolutely loved. Overall, an interesting read about internet email scams and the Nigerian turmoil experienced by the oil industry’s presence in Nigeria, but lacking the powerful delivery I expected from an important literary prize winner.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The Nigerian email scam which seeks funds on behalf of some poor suffering Nigerian is the centre plot of this story. One of the victims is a retired Calgary man whose family, in particular, his daughter seeks revenge on the perpetrators.This is a story about victims and they are not just those gullible enough to fall for these emails scams. Victims are strewn across Nigeria because of government corruption and the insatiable demands of the oil giants in the Delta. This is a good book but I found it dwelt too long on the Amina and Naambe stories.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I learned a lot of things about the Nigerian email scams that have plagued and plugged our email boxes. I once actually even finished reading an entire entreaty, shaking my head in disbelief that a) someone could actually write such a thing and think that someone would fall for it, and b) that some people actually do fall for it. But I never knew anything about that world, and this book sure opened my eyes to that world of conniving thievery.
    By far the most interesting parts of the book are those set in Nigeria -- it was fascinating to read about the devastating effects on society of the oil industry, and of the webs of intrigue involved in the email scamming industry, and even of the scam-the-scammers roles. Just as the NIgerian story lines about Winston and Nnamdi would get perking along nicely, the story would switch disappointingly back to the Canadian lines. There were multiple, too many, frayed threads that were woven clumsily together. The Nigerian sideplot with Amina -- what was that for? It was boring and didn't fit and seemed irrelevant and contrived. And what was up with the longing eyes of the detective, staring at the apt building of Laura? The characters were poorly developed and unconvincing.
    There was far too much journalistic digression about the mechanics and explanations of the 419 scams; a little would be good, but this was too much. It felt lecturing and preachy.
    No, there were just too many confused storylines which synergistically weakened the whole thing.
    Some sharp editing could have pared this down in half and resulted in a taut twisty thriller. Makes me wonder again: why don't editors' names ever appear in books?
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The earlier sections set in Nigeria were by far the most effective. I found the Canadian plot dull and the characters involved in it wooden and uninspiring.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    When Laura and Warren's father drives himself off a cliff, it looks suspicious. The police quickly learn that Henry was being scammed by one of those Nigerian email scams. In the first half of the book, I was ready to give this 3.5 stars (good), but when an additional character was introduced about halfway through and so much focused on him, I brought it down to 3 stars (ok). The parts that focused on Henry's family and on Winston, the guy in Nigeria behind the scam, I liked enough to rate good. However, there were two other characters that a lot of the book focused on (especially in the second half). I didn't find them nearly as interesting or entertaining to read about. I did learn more about those scams which was kind of interesting. Overall, I'm going to rate this one 3 stars, o.k.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I enjoyed the writing, the characters and the storylines of this book. 419 is so well researched and written with such heart that I wish I had liked it more. I found that I could not make the leap to believe in the fantastical ending--I wanted to but I could not. Still, I recommend it--I've never heard THIS story told before.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I really enjoyed this departure from Ferguson's "regular" genre. It reminded me a bit of Dan Chaon's book, "Await Your Reply". Basically the idea of computer fraud and how psychological factors of the victims feed into them being swindled. The way it is written it really gives you insight into how this is part of culture in certain places and they blame people for being vulnerable. I found it fascinating and well written.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is a well written, atmospheric novel centered on Nigeria’s internet “419” scams. With stories that begin separately and intersect over time, main characters include the Canadian daughter of a victim, a front line scam artist, a boy raised in a village in the oil rich Niger Delta, and a young, pregnant girl escaping from the nomadic desert clan she grew up among. While building psychological suspense, author Will Ferguson explores many different sides of Nigeria, offering up intriguing glimpses of its culture and history. Highly recommended!
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    i am still amazed that people are actually sending money to Nigeria and believe all these crazy promises. i know they are poor in Nigeria but lets face it, not the big shots who evetually collect the morny will be left dead but the little people and their families.this books breaks your heart when you see the family suffering after the canadian father send money to Nigeria and then again when you read about the people who started thr scam.the daughter goes out for revenge but in the end there no winners, just loosers on both sides. sad.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This book was good, but a doozy to get through. It jumped around a bit more than I, even as an avid reader, was prepared for. The story is interesting, with an unforseen turn at the end. Worth the read if you can keep up with the plot line jumps.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    419 is a scary-real novel involving an older man who gets involved in a Nigerian internet scam. Green and corruption drive the story; not just the greed of the criminal minds in Nigeria but also the greed of Henry Curtis who somehow believes he can cash in on a windfall of money. Like Eve in the garden, he believes the lie, and ultimately Henry and his family pay a very high price.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    When I received 419 by Will Ferguson I had no idea what the 419 scam was, however after a few short pages into the book I began to understand more about this horrible scam. This was a fast paced read about Laura and her incredible plot to exact revenge for her fathers death from the people and the country that she felt played a deep role in his suicide. Laura's father drove his car over a cliff but there was a reason... he lost the family home in a scam that takes millions from millions of people. The 419 scam originated in Nigeria and scams the unknowing into sending thousands of dollars to the country on the premise of helping out family of royalty who have gotten themselves in trouble. Laura plans her revenge and is told she will not make it out a live nor will she get the money back but Laura knows that sometimes it is not about the money and plans her journey anyway. This is a fast paced thriller about her trip to Nigeria and back.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    "Four one nine is not a game, it is a contest of wills," Ironsi-Egobia continued. "It is Nigerian cunning versus oyibo greed, and in such a tussle, cunning always has the advantage. Why? Because greed clouds men's eyes, fogs their gaze. Cunning focuses it. We are tax collectors, Adam. We charge a tax on greed. We should be congratulated, not prosecuted, and yet it is we who are called the criminals. Criminals! They talk about Nigeria's 'culture of corruption.' What of Europe's 'culture of greed'? What of America's? What of these oyibos agreeing to schemes that are so clearly illegal, were they to be true? Moving millions of dollars out of a poverty-stricken nation, profiteering on Nigeria's hardships? Are the mugus not criminals too? Aspiring criminals, but criminals still. Are they not accomplices as much as they are victims? This is what the fools at the EFCC fail to see."419, the winner of the 2012 Scotiabank Giller Prize, begins with a mysterious automobile accident in Calgary that claims the life of Henry Curtis, a retired schoolteacher. That is the first of a series of surprises that follow, as his wife, his son Wallace and his daughter Laura soon find out that Henry was the victim of a Nigerian e-mail scam that has claimed his and his wife's life savings and has left them nearly $200,000 in debt. The local Canadian police share details of the conversations Henry had with a supposed Nigerian bank executive, but the family is informed that this money is lost forever, and they should not attempt to reclaim it by contacting Canadian or Nigerian officials. Wallace verbally expresses his anger and frustration with vehemence, while Laura quietly plans what action she can take to gain revenge for her father's death.Winston is a university educated young Nigerian who operates out of an Internet parlor in Lagos creating 419 e-mail scams alongside other yahoo boys (419 refers to the section in the Nigerian Criminal Code that concerns fraud). He works independently and is quite successful, and as a result he is selected by Ironsi-Egobia, a local strong man, to run his scams in private under his "protection".Nnamdi is a bright village youth selected by Dutch oil company officials for training as a mechanic, and later becomes a Shell Man, who earns a hefty salary but is loathed by other young men nearby. He later collaborates with some of them, and undertakes an even more lucrative job whose risks are outweighed by its potential profits. The lives of these three main characters converge in Lagos, a chaotic city where corruption is rampant and danger is always present. The story progressively picks up speed as it reaches its terrifying and unexpected conclusion.419 is an action packed novel that takes big risks, yet largely fails to deliver on them, in the manner of a batter who takes a mighty swing at a baseball and hits a high drive that falls well short of the outfield fence and lands harmlessly in a fielder's glove. The story regularly strained credulity, and ultimately I lost interest in the lives of its characters. Although it does seem to paint a believable, though bleak, picture of modern Nigeria and provides information about the effects of 419 scams on Westerners and Nigerians, it ultimately was an unsatisfying read.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    There is so much not to "spill the beans" about, when it comes to this novel, including the title. It was a fairly engaging novel that had some believable characters dealing with love, death and money mostly in Nigeria. I learned a great deal about the country, a great deal that most any Chamber of Commerce or Travel Bureau wouldn't want to focus on. The overpowering and overwhelming poverty and corruption that is portrayed in 419 man this one of the darkest books that I've read in some time. There are several main characters spread across the country, and the globe, that are cleverly brought together by the book's conclusion. There's some troubling violence that brutally forces the plot forward and little to feel good about. But there is some. The book begins with an old man's death as he hurtles off a high cliff ... where the road curves, and his car's path doesn't. Yet, there are some good people, trying to do the right thing here and there. This book is sure to stick with me for a long time, and my thoughts will be sad whenever Nigeria is mentioned.  
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    419 by Will Ferguson is a fairly engaging book. Much of its appeal is found through the glimpse it offers into the lives of those who are involved in the 419 scams. Americans may not be familiar with the term "419," but if you've ever received an e-mail that begins something like "I am the daughter of a Nigerian diplomat," you know of what the book speaks. Through the first two-thirds of the tale, the stories of the three main characters slowly unfold. I found myself engaged by each--but impatient to learn how they would eventually tie together. Although the people who populate the book lack depth, the story is interesting enough to keep you reading.Overall, this is an interesting book and worth the time it took to read it.I received a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    When you exhale a "wow" at the final pages, when the passing of a novel's characters - the characters that you found yourself rooting for to escape their situations illicits disappointment that life can be harsh, when you find the corporate greed at the expense of another's culture to be embarassing...then you have experienced a truely engaging novel. Who hasn't seen emails from Nigeria begging for assistance! "419" tears away the layers of how these financial scams are built but beyond that, "419" draws the reader into the finely crafted characters. The author's use of multiple story lines that eventually intersect work well to tell the story and becomes equally as layered as the original financial scam. I received this book through the Early Readers program.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    419 is the story of corruption in Nigeria. While it was hard to follow the characters at times it is quite a story and certainly causes one to think of all the things that can go wrong in the use of the Internet when unsuspecting people are caught up in a seemingly innocent e-mails. I was pleased to be selected by LibraryThing to review this book.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Probably everyone who has ever had an e-mail address has received one of those letters from the daughter/wife/widow of a famous Nigerian general/diplomat/business man, who needs a way to get some money, usually a huge sum, out of the country before the dastardly government steals it away. The only catch is, one must show good faith by first sending some money to Nigeria, at which time a million or more dollars will be deposited to one’s account. I need say no more, as we all know how it works.As evidenced by the title, this book deals with such scams, looking into the lives of both the scam perpetrators and the scam victims. The reader is given some insight as to why some of the perpetrators take part in the scam operations. Many of them are relatively poor, have fallen away from family or are in some kind of trouble.In reading the book, I began to have a little sympathy for the “low men on the totem pole,” who for the most part were pathetic characters. There is involvement by a crime boss or three, and most of the young men fear their own particular boss. No wonder. The crime boss isn’t hesitant about causing the loss of limb or life.The plot was rather interesting, and the jumping back and forth between characters was well done. It was easy to keep up with who was doing what. That being said, there was too much left undone. I don’t mind using my imagination but feel that too many of the plot lines were left dangling.It was an easy read, though, and I did learn a few things. All in all it wasn’t a waste of a few hours but, hindsight being 20/20, I wouldn’t buy it.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    419 tells a good story -- a story that kept me engaged and interested, despite shallow character development and some unnecessary length. I wish the theme of Laura's relationship with her father had been more fully developed...that Amina had a back-story or that we had some glimpse as to what her future might hold...that we knew more about the traffic accident detective.....