<b>In this innovative synthesis of words and images, the award-winning author of <i>Open City</i> and photography critic for <i>The New York Times Magazine</i> combines two of his great passions.</b><br><br><b>One of <i>Time</i>’s Top 10 Non-Fiction Books of the Year • One of <i>Smithsonian.com</i><b>’s </b>Ten Best Photography Books of the Year<br><br></b> When it comes to Teju Cole, the unexpected is not unfamiliar: He’s an acclaimed novelist, an influential essayist, and an internationally exhibited photographer. In <i>Blind Spot</i>, readers follow Cole’s inimitable artistic vision into the visual realm as he continues to refine the voice, eye, and intellectual obsessions that earned him such acclaim for <i>Open City</i>.<br><br> Here, journey through more than 150 of Cole’s full-color original photos, each accompanied by his lyrical and evocative prose, forming a multimedia diary of years of near-constant travel: from a park in Berlin to a mountain range in Switzerland, a church exterior in Lagos to a parking lot in Brooklyn; landscapes and interiors, beautiful or quotidian, that inspire Cole’s memories, fantasies, and introspections. Ships in Capri remind him of the work of writers from Homer to Edna O’Brien; a hotel room in Wannsee brings back a disturbing dream about a friend’s death; a home in Tivoli evokes a transformative period of semi-blindness, after which “the photography changed. . . . The looking changed.”<br><br> As exquisitely wrought as the work of Anne Carson or Chris Marker, <i>Blind Spot</i> is a testament to the art of seeing by one of the most powerful and original voices in contemporary literature.<br><br><b>Praise for <i>Blind Spot</i></b><br><br>“Common things [are] made radiant by the quality of Cole’s looking. . . . In this new, luminous book, Cole shows himself to be really one of the best at seeing.”<b>—<i>The Guardian</i></b><br><br> “This lyrical essay in photographs paired with texts explores the mysteries of the ordinary.”<b>—<i>The New York Times Books Review </i>(Editors’ Choice)</b><br><br> “Stunning . . . feels like the fulfillment of an intellectual project that has defined most of [Cole’s] career.”<b>—<i>Slate</i></b><br><br> “Dazzling . . . cerebral yet intimate . . . combines personal essay, history, biography, journalism, and photography into a seamless package, capturing human dignity and grace through careful, clear-eyed reverence.”<b>—<i>Vice</i></b><br><br> “An eclectically brilliant distillation of what photography can do, and why it remains an important art form.”<b>—<i>San Francisco Chronicle</i></b> Read Less