Teju Cole
Open City
Open City
By Teju Cole | Random House (2012)
A haunting and timely debut novel about a young Nigerian doctor in New York, for readers of Joseph O’Neill and Zadie Smith.
At the beginning of Open City, Julius has just broken up with his girlfriend, and feeling adrift and alone, he sets out on a series of walks through the city. On these walks he encounters a number of people—both strangers and old acquaintances—who reveal stories about their own pasts and the history of New York and, especially, its immigrants. Through these stories, each a little history in its own right, Julius begins to probe deeper into his own past. This journey takes him to Europe and the Nigeria of his youth. Eventually, back in New York, he meets a young woman from Nigeria, an investment banker at Lehman Brothers, who holds a secret about Julius that will shatter everything he has come to understand about himself and his world.