So they didn’t make the Man Booker shortlist this year but these longlisted novels are still well worth a read says Lottie Brown.

Along the streets of Manhattan a young Nigerian doctor walks for hours on end, contemplating the city and the blur of people that rush past him like the swarms of migrating birds he watches swim across the sky. In this way New York finds its way into Julius’ life at walking-pace; with each step he considers the dark recesses of his mind, the surfacing of things he’d chosen to forget and the recent break-up with his girlfriend.

Cole’s debut novel is in no way fast-paced; actually it is surprisingly void of action except in its climatic revelation  – Julius strolls around a lot, meditates his past, goes to Brussels for a brief affair, comes back, has a picnic, gets mugged. It is the poignant quality of the prose and the depth of Cole’s insight into both the mind and the hidden layers of New York City that are captivating readers.

Open City is a subtle, reflective and profound meditation on race, identity, love, dislocation and surrender; of the heightening effect large crowds can have on isolation; of the trauma that cloaks itself in solitariness; but most of all, of an attempt to free the most unrecognisable parts of the soul.

Open City is avialable now from Faber.