Teju Cole wrote the very highly acclaimed Open City (which I have not read); this is actually an earlier novel, only published previously in Nigeria. Although it's described as fiction, it doesn't have a plot as such, it's really a vehicle for the author to offer a polemical portrait of contemporary Nigeria. He is particularly disturbed by the corruption and hopelessness he finds there. At around 160 pages, and including photographs by the author, it's a brief work, but the writing is economical and precise; I read it in a single sitting. Cole is a writer to watch. He was born in Nigeria, but has lived in the US since 1992. He's described as a writer, photographer, and a professional historian of early Netherlandish art. Superb.