Pharmakon
By Teju Cole
Published by MACK
London, 2024

Born in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and raised in Lagos, Nigeria (before returning to the US for college), Teju Cole—essayist, novelist, photographer—is a Renaissance man of polymathic tendencies and catholic tastes. He considers Plato, Caravaggio, Beethoven, Rainer Maria Rilke, Ansel Adams, Lorna Simpson, Cy Twombly, Akira Kurosawa, Andrei Tarkovsky, and Sun Ra as his very own ports of refuge, towering figures with whom he communes across time and space. His cultural leanings are even reflected in his politics, advocating for a civic engagement that reinforces pragmatism and reason, as well as a quiet, contemplative art of psychic and spiritual nourishment. That is to say, there is much to admire.