Quote by Teju Cole: “The city is like a book; it has a language that must be learned.”

This metaphor suggests that urban environments are complex, layered texts offering deep insights to those who pay close attention. It means understanding a city requires active engagement, observation, and learning its unique rhythms, histories, and social codes, much like mastering a foreign language.

Written at a time when global interconnectedness was rapidly expanding, Cole's novel explores themes of wandering, urban alienation, and the hidden narratives embedded within major cities, capturing a sense of reflective observation.

Nigerian-American writer and photographer whose debut novel Open City won the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award in 2012. His work fuses memoir, criticism, and fiction to examine race, movement, and identity in the postcolonial world.