Tremor

A Novel

By: Teju Cole

Narrated by: Atta Otigba, Yetide Badaki

Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

An “extraordinary, ambitious” (The Times UK) novel that masterfully explores what constitutes a meaningful life in a violent world—from the award-winning author of Open City

New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice • “Cole’s mind is so agile that it’s easy to follow him anywhere.”—The New Yorker

FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD • A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Time, The Washington Post, Financial Times, Vulture, Chicago Public Library, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal

Life is hopeless but it is not serious. We have to have danced while we could and, later, to have danced again in the telling.

A weekend spent antiquing is shadowed by the colonial atrocities that occurred on that land. A walk at dusk is interrupted by casual racism. A loving marriage is riven by mysterious tensions. And a remarkable cascade of voices speaks out from a pulsing metropolis.

We’re invited to experience these events and others through the eyes and ears of Tunde, a West African man working as a teacher of photography on a renowned New England campus. He is a reader, a listener, a traveler, drawn to many different kinds of stories: stories from history and epic; stories of friends, family, and strangers; stories found in books and films. Together these stories make up his days. In aggregate these days comprise a life.

Tremor is a startling work of realism and invention that engages brilliantly with literature, music, race, and history as it examines the passage of time and how we mark it. It is a reckoning with human survival amidst “history’s own brutality, which refuses symmetries and seldom consoles,” but it is also a testament to the possibility of joy. As he did in his magnificent debut Open City, Teju Cole once again offers narration with all its senses alert, a surprising and deeply essential work from a beacon of contemporary literature.

©2023 Teju Cole (P)2023 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"Atta Otigba and Yetide Badaki give outstanding performances of this imagistic, nonlinear novel. They are grand guides to a world of art, history, and criticism. Badaki has precise diction and a lovely artistic tone with a slight Nigerian lilt. Otigba, also Nigerian, delivers his parts in a powerful and authoritative voice. The narrative switches from one to the other seamlessly." (AudioFile)

“A master class in the morality of art . . . a novel of ideas but also of voices, of different perspectives claiming the first-person narrative I. The precision of detail stresses the importance of seeing, but identity, perspective, and context determine who is seeing what. . . . A provocative and profound meditation on art and life in a world of terror.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“[Tremor] is a high-wire act, beating its own, defiant path through the weightless air.” —The Nation

“This extraordinary, ambitious novel . . . breaks new ground.” —The Times

Fractured narrative line but little gained from splicing of stories

The narrators performed well. It’s the book’s content that lacked. Experimental structure can be great, where story lines entangle and add to each other, or narrative flow pauses and allows the author’s insights to crystallize. None of that materialized here. Just a bunch of descriptions with a few fine phrases achieved.

Totally loved this book

Very meditative and thought provoking. Opened me up to so many new perspectives and left me feeling more untuned with my heritage.

love the narrators!

nonlinear narrative and packed wi/h references to music, art and literature. the section in Lagos composed of vignettes is surprising and unforgettable. the ending is something I will return to for inspiration and a reminder of excellent writing

An expression of the Genuine Feelings of a Young African Man encountering a Confusing World.

While Tremor did not resonate with me personally, Teju’s writing convinced me that he was telling his Truth. Sometimes it’s interesting to see the World through a character far different from oneself. Come to think of it: That’s what Fiction is about, huh?!