Johannesburg and Lagos: two striking new portraits

These two city books are linked by an inquiry into the mysterious ways in which the spaces of our early lives come to structure imagination, creativity and the self.

By Hedley Twidle

(Photo By City limits: scavengers on a landfill site in Lagos. Teju Cole charts the underside of Nigeria's growth. Photo: Jacob Silberberg/Panos)

Every Day Is for the Thief
Teju Cole
Faber & Faber, 163pp, £12.99

Dispatcher: Lost and Found in Johannesburg
Mark Gevisser
Granta Books, 368pp, £18.99

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