Open City

Teju Cole is a Nigerian New Yorker, a New Yorker of Nigerian descent, an ex pat in New York - he's also an exceptional writer. Sycophantic opening aside, this book is brilliant and yet so simple. Part psycho-geographic study of New York and its inhabitants, architecture and intellectual history, part study of the immigrant experience.

Julius walks around New York trying to make sense of his life. Recently separated from a partner, his days filled with others' problems, his nights filled with empty spaces, isolation seeps from the pavements he plods. His estranged mother looms over the voids in his life. Julius needs something, anything to pull him together. So he begins these walks around New York, and we start to learn about a city that is filled with similarly isolated people, all searching for connections.

Teju Cole's writing style is imbued with poetry, the grace and poise in his writing makes it rhythmical, intelligent and moving. This is an exceptional book in a year of exceptional books and is one to read at leisure, soaking in the beauty and sadness of one of the greatest cities in the world.