The Fixer

“The U.S. visa lottery program has been called ‘the planet's most popular game of chance.’ In this utterly riveting book, Charles Piot, among the finest Africanist scholars of our day, takes us—along with consummate ‘fixer,’ the lottery broker Kodjo Nicolas Batema—on an extraordinary journey into the business of dreams, following those seeking a path to America. Along the way, they not only make new lives, they also fashion an organic ‘theory from the South’ about the workings of the contemporary world order. Laced with humor, irony, disappointment, and hope, The Fixer is a truly terrific accomplishment.” - John L. Comaroff, coauthor of The Truth about Crime: Sovereignty, Knowledge, Social Order

“The Fixer is both an entertaining tale and a deep one. The pages turn quickly as we follow a vivid cast of characters chasing their emigration dreams through various impostures staged by the title character. But while the stories are often funny, the poignant predicament that frames them is deadly serious. A powerful book, illuminating a set of issues that could hardly be more important or timely.” - James Ferguson, author of Give a Man a Fish: Reflections on the New Politics of Distribution

"Extremely well written, The Fixer is a must-read for those striving for a more equitable world: their advocacy efforts around global mobility and migration cannot be understood divorced from global inequalities. The Fixer would be a great read for general readers, migration experts, policymakers, folks involved in advocacy for immigrants and displaced people, and students of immigration and transnational studies, as well as in courses on the challenges and ethics of ethnographic field research. Just a gentle warning — once you start the book, it is hard to put down." - Faranak Miraftab, International Migration Review

“Scholars of Africa will appreciate how Piot combines his deep regional knowledge of Togo and his ethnographic expertise to highlight the larger global forces that shape the lives of migrant-refugees.”

"The Fixer demonstrates how skillful ethnography can help us better grasp the current political, economic, and cultural dynamics of migration as impacted by understandings of kinship, legitimacy, and local improvisation." - Dubie Toa-Kwapong, Transforming Anthropology

"While the key theoretical interventions of the book are spelt out in the introduction, the rest of the book is written in clear prose accessible to academic and non-academic audiences. The book makes a fine contribution to migration studies, economic and legal anthropology, African studies, and US studies; it would be a great case study for graduate and undergraduate courses in these fields." - Smoki Musaraj, Anthropological Notebooks