Can you recommend a book that makes you deeply sad about humanity, circa 2026? After Barragán, a young journalist in Madrid, learned his dentist mom had been scammed by a Nigerian romance con artist, he traveled to Lagos to see if he could track the scammer down. Instead, he was drawn, by equal parts empathy and disgust, into the ubiquitous culture of “Yahoo boys” there—countless young hustlers, not part of any sophisticated criminal syndicate, who can often barely afford the phones they stay up all night posting on, trying to coax Amazon gift cards out of lonely, online Westerners. The loneliness and desperation on both sides of these protracted transactions have an odd and disturbing balance, alongside the vast wealth imbalance between the white West and the Global South. I’m often charmed by con-man tales, but these scammers’ stories, told with patient and thoughtful curiosity, crushed me. Recommended nevertheless!
—Tom, Phinney Books, Seattle, WA
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