by Teju Cole
First published 2025
Otobong Nkanga stands in her Berlin studio, surrounded by canvases that bridge two worlds. The Nigerian-born artist has spent years moving between Lagos and Europe, carrying memories of red earth and family voices while building a new life among galleries and art critics who struggle to pronounce her name. When a major exhibition threatens to define her work through Western eyes alone, Otobong must decide whether to conform to expectations or risk everything to tell her own story. She returns to Nigeria to reconnect with the landscapes and traditions that shaped her vision, but finds a country that has changed as much as she has. Caught between the art world's demands and her own artistic truth, Otobong discovers that home might not be a place but something she must create for herself. Cole crafts a story about the price of crossing borders and the courage required to remain whole.
Genres: fiction, art, african-literature, contemporary, biographical-fiction, 21st-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, found-family
Setting: Berlin, Europe, Lagos, Nigeria
Period: 21st-century
167 pages · Hardcover · Lisson Gallery