Open City by Teju Cole

There's not much by way of plot to Teju Cole's debut novel, Open City, in which a Nigerian psychiatry resident named Julius takes long walks around New York City. But the flights of Julius' mind — both the things he remembers and the things he elides — fuel a powerful and unnerving inquiry into the human soul. Cole has earned flattering comparisons to literary heavyweights like J.M. Coetzee, W.G. Sebald and Henry James, but Open City merits higher praise: it's a profoundly original work, intellectually stimulating and possessing of a style both engaging and seductive.

• 
• Click to Print

• Find this article at:
• https://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2101344_2101086_2101097,00.html