“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.”
