TEJU COLE: Writer, art historian, street photographer, Distinguished Writer in Residence at Bard College.

 

Open City: A Novel
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Hardcover: 272 pages
Publisher: Random House; First Edition edition (February 8, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1400068096
ISBN-13: 978-1400068098
Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 6.1 x 1 inches

A page for and about the novel OPEN CITY by Teju Cole.

“The past, if there is such a thing, is mostly empty space, great expanses of nothing, in which significant persons and events float. Nigeria was like that for me: mostly forgotten, except for those few things that I remembered with outsize intensity.”

Along the streets of Manhattan, a young Nigerian doctor doing his residency wanders aimlessly. The walks meet a need for Julius: they are a release from the tightly regulated mental environment of work, and they give him the opportunity to process his relationships, his recent breakup with his girlfriend, his present, his past. Though he is navigating the busy parts of town, the impression of countless faces does nothing to assuage his feelings of isolation.

But it is not only a physical landscape he covers; Julius crisscrosses social territory as well, encountering people from different cultures and classes who will provide insight on his journey—which takes him to Brussels, to the Nigeria of his youth, and into the most unrecognizable facets of his own soul.

A haunting novel about national identity, race, liberty, loss, dislocation, and surrender, Teju Cole’s Open City seethes with intelligence. Written in a clear, rhythmic voice that lingers, this book is a mature, profound work by an important new author who has much to say about our country and our world.

 

Every Day is for the Thief
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Paperback: 128 pages
Publisher: Cassava Republic (2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 978080515X
ISBN-13: 978-9780805159

Every Day is for the Thief is an account of a Nigerian in the diaspora who returns home after many years abroad. The book gains its strength as much from its subject matter (contemporary Lagosian life as experienced by a visiting former resident) as from its prose style (reminiscent of John Berger and J.M. Coetzee). Teju Cole's nuanced book explores themes as diverse as the minor joys of daily Lagosian existence and the crudities of contemporary forms of corruption. His work is both a critique and a message of hope to a Nigeria rapidly in transformation.

Related Links

Teju Cole Official Website
http://www.tejucole.com