Go offline with the Player FM app!
Teju Cole: NYC, Open City
Manage episode 376795020 series 3399233
Teju Cole is rapidly becoming a new literary sensation in America. His novel Open City – which won the 2012 Pen/Hemingway Award and the New York City Book Award – is unlike anything you’ve ever read.
The narrator, Julius, is a Nigerian psychiatry student who lives in Manhattan and likes to walk in the city. As he does, he has encounters. Most are small. He watches children playing in a park. He discovers that the woman next door died recently, and is quietly devastated, though he hardly knew her.
The novel’s blended texture reminds you of something: real life. You get a sense of this man and this city, but also of how we construct ourselves. The Seattle Times called it “Magnificent and shattering. A remarkably resonant feat of prose.”
44 episodes
Manage episode 376795020 series 3399233
Teju Cole is rapidly becoming a new literary sensation in America. His novel Open City – which won the 2012 Pen/Hemingway Award and the New York City Book Award – is unlike anything you’ve ever read.
The narrator, Julius, is a Nigerian psychiatry student who lives in Manhattan and likes to walk in the city. As he does, he has encounters. Most are small. He watches children playing in a park. He discovers that the woman next door died recently, and is quietly devastated, though he hardly knew her.
The novel’s blended texture reminds you of something: real life. You get a sense of this man and this city, but also of how we construct ourselves. The Seattle Times called it “Magnificent and shattering. A remarkably resonant feat of prose.”
44 episodes
All episodes
×Welcome to Player FM!
Player FM is scanning the web for high-quality podcasts for you to enjoy right now. It's the best podcast app and works on Android, iPhone, and the web. Signup to sync subscriptions across devices.