This is a curated collection of essays by Teju Cole, also known for his fiction The Open City and Every Day is for the Thief. I say “curated” because Teju Cole talks in the introduction about looking for works to select from that he thinks are representative and connected, if not complete. So the essays range in topics, beginning with readings of James Baldwin from Teju Cole’s Nigerian-American background (separate and distinct from James Baldwin’s African-American background) as well as with Cole’s connection and work with Switzerland. […]
I reiterate Beowulf, I recite my Yoruba tongue-twister, I tell Lucian Freud’s joke: we are creatures of private convention.
Known and Strange Things by Teju Cole