Bøger af Teju Cole

A blazingly intelligent first collection of essays from the award-winning author of Open City and Every Day Is for the Thief. With these pieces on politics, photography, travel, history and literature - many of which have become viral sensations, shared and debated around the globe - Teju Cole solidifies his place as one of today's most powerful and original voices. On page after page, deploying prose dense with beauty and ideas, he finds fresh and potent ways to interpret art, people and historical moments. Cole tells of his engagement with Virginia Woolf through her diaries, before reflecting on an episode of temporary blindness in New York. He looks at the rise of Instagram and interrogates the value of its images. He examines the transition of the candidate Obama, the avid reader, into a 'forever-war' president on the global stage. Persuasive and provocative, erudite yet accessible, Known and Strange Things is an opportunity to live within Teju Cole's wide-ranging enthusiasms, curiosities and passions, and a chance to see the world in surprising and affecting new frames.'A book written with a scalpel, a microscope, and walking shoes, full of telling details and sometimes big surprises.' Rebecca Solnit

In Blind Spot, readers will follow Teju Cole's inimitable artistic vision into the visual realm, as he continues to refine the voice and intellectual obsessions that earned him such acclaim for Open City.

'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 world.

This is narration with all its senses alert, a surprising and deeply essential work from a beacon of contemporary literature. Praise for Open City:'Open City is not a loud novel, nor a thriller, nor a nail-biter.

"With this collection of more than fifty pieces on politics, photography, travel, history, and literature, Teju Cole solidifies his place as one of today's most powerful and original voices. On page after page, deploying prose dense with beauty and ideas, he finds fresh and potent ways to interpret art, people, and historical moments, taking in subjects from Virginia Woolf, Shakespeare, and W. G. Sebald to Instagram, Barack Obama, and Boko Haram."--Amazon.com.

In this innovative synthesis of words and images, the award-winning author of Open City and photography critic for The New York Times Magazine combines two of his great passions.One of Time's Top 10 Non-Fiction Books of the Year *; One of Smithsonian.com's Ten Best Photography Books of the Year When it comes to Teju Cole, the unexpected is not unfamiliar: He's an acclaimed novelist, an influential essayist, and an internationally exhibited photographer. In Blind Spot, readers follow Cole's inimitable artistic vision into the visual realm as he continues to refine the voice, eye, and intellectual obsessions that earned him such acclaim for Open City. Here, journey through more than 150 of Cole's original photos, each accompanied by his lyrical and evocative prose, forming a multimedia diary of years of near-constant travel: from a park in Berlin to a mountain range in Switzerland, a church exterior in Lagos to a parking lot in Brooklyn; landscapes and interiors, beautiful or quotidian, that inspire Cole's memories, fantasies, and introspections. Ships in Capri remind him of the work of writers from Homer to Edna O'Brien; a hotel room in Wannsee brings back a disturbing dream about a friend's death; a home in Tivoli evokes a transformative period of semi-blindness, after which ';the photography changed. . . . The looking changed.' As exquisitely wrought as the work of Anne Carson or Chris Marker, Blind Spot is a testament to the art of seeing by one of the most powerful and original voices in contemporary literature.Praise for Blind Spot';Common things [are] made radiant by the quality of Cole's looking. . . . In this new, luminous book, Cole shows himself to be really one of the best at seeing.'The Guardian ';This lyrical essay in photographs paired with texts explores the mysteries of the ordinary.'TheNew York Times Books Review (Editors' Choice) ';Stunning . . . feels like the fulfillment of an intellectual project that has defined most of [Cole's] career.'Slate ';Dazzling . . . cerebral yet intimate . . . combines personal essay, history, biography, journalism, and photography into a seamless package, capturing human dignity and grace through careful, clear-eyed reverence.'Vice ';An eclectically brilliant distillation of what photography can do, and why it remains an important art form.'San Francisco Chronicle

A New York Times Notable Book *;One of the ten top novels of the yearTime and NPR NAMED A BEST BOOK ON MORE THAN TWENTY END-OF-THE-YEAR LISTS, INCLUDING The New Yorker *; The Atlantic *; The Economist *; Newsweek/The Daily Beast *; The New Republic *; New York Daily News *; Los Angeles Times *; The Boston Globe *; The Seattle Times *; Minneapolis Star Tribune *; GQ *; Salon *; Slate *; New York magazine *; The Week *; The Kansas City Star *; Kirkus ReviewsA haunting novel about identity, dislocation, and history, Teju Cole's Open City is a profound work by an important new author who has much to say about our country and our world. Along the streets of Manhattan, a young Nigerian doctor named Julius wanders, reflecting on his relationships, his recent breakup with his girlfriend, his present, his past. He encounters people from different cultures and classes who will provide insight on his journeywhich takes him to Brussels, to the Nigeria of his youth, and into the most unrecognizable facets of his own soul.';[A] prismatic debut . . . beautiful, subtle, [and] original.'The New Yorker ';A psychological hand grenade.'The Atlantic ';Magnificent . . . a remarkably resonant feat of prose.'The Seattle Times ';A precise and poetic meditation on love, race, identity, friendship, memory, [and] dislocation.'The Economist

In 2012-2013, a year-long conversation between writers took place at 17 literary festivals around the world, from Jaipur to Krasnoyarsk, and from Melbourne to Berlin. This book provides an international perspective on the issues facing writers and writing in general, and the present-day novel in particular.

A young man decides to visit Nigeria after years of absence. Ahead lies the difficult journey back to the family house and all its memories; meetings with childhood friends and above all, facing up to the paradox of Nigeria, whose present is as burdened by the past as it is facing a new future.Along the way, our narrator encounters life in Lagos. He is captivated by a woman reading on a danfo; attempts to check his email are frustrated by Yahoo boys; he is charmingly duped buying fuel. He admires the grace of an aunty, bereaved by armed robbers and is inspired by the new malls and cultural venues. The question is: should he stay or should he leave?But before the story can even begin, he has to queue for his visa..Every Day is for the Thiefis a striking portrait of Nigeria in change. Through a series of cinematic portraits of everyday life in Lagos, Teju Cole provides a fresh approach to the returnee experience.- See more at: http://www.cassavarepublic.biz/products/every-day-is-for-the-thief#sthash.qe7r4oNv.dpuf

Åben by er en fortælling om den unge psykiater, Julius, som tilbringer sin tid efter arbejde med at gå rundt i New Yorks gader, alene og i timevis. Mens han går reflekterer han over sin barndom, sit forliste kærlighedsforhold og sin ensomhed og isolation i storbyen. Byen driver forbi ham, afslører spor af de mennesker som engang boede her. Ved hvert nyt møde trænger Julius dybere ind i New Yorks historie - og sin egen.Åben by en beretning om at være en fremmed i New York efter 9/11. En roman om vores tids store spørgsmål – om erindring, rodløshed og kunstens forløsende kraft. På en gang dagbog, flanørroman, essay og dagdrøm.Åben by er oversat til tolv sprog, var med på mere end tyve lister over årets bedste bøger, bl.a. i The New Yorker, Los Angeles Times og The Boston Globe, og indbragte flere priser.ANMELDERNE SKREV”En uforglemmelig og mesterlig debutroman..” THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW“Hvis Baudelaire havde været en ung afrikaner som gik rundt i New Yorks gader, er det her den bog han ville have skrevet. En melankolsk, smuk meditation over det moderne byliv som kan minde om W.G. Sebald og Walter Benjamin og som viser at Teju Cole tilhører en talentfuld ny generation af globale forfattere der har hjemme overalt i verden.” HARI KUNZU“En stærk og foruroligende undersøgelse af menneskets sjæl. Cole er fortjent blevet sammenlignet med litterære sværvægtere som J.M. Coetzee, W.G. Sebald and Henry James, men Åben by er først og fremmest et dybt originalt værk i sin egen ret: intellektuelt stimulerende og stilistisk medrivende og forførende.” - TIME MAGAZINE“Smuk, underfundig og original … det der driver fortællingen frem er skriften – begæret efter at skrive, at besejre ensomheden gennem skriften. Cole har lagt romanen så tæt på dagbogen som den overhovedet kan, med plads til refleksion, selvbiografi, stilstand og repetition. En ekstremt svær balance/øvelse som selv etablerede forfattere ville knække halsen på. Hos Cole lykkes det på mirakuløs og vidunderlig vis.” JAMES WOOD, THE NEW YORKER