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Reading lists

Short audiobooks you can enjoy in one sitting

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Books to read if you’re going through a break-up

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Short books to read when you’re overwhelmed

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Comforting books to read if you’re heartbroken

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Interviews

‘I met Malorie Blackman and was starstruck’: 21 Questions with Caleb Azumah Nelson

Winner of the Costa First Novel Award 2021

Open Water

WINNER OF THE COSTA FIRST NOVEL AWARD 2021 
WINNER OF DEBUT NOVEL OF THE YEAR AT THE BRITISH BOOK AWARDS 2022 
A No.1 BESTSELLER IN THE TIMES 
 
'A tender and touching love story, beautifully told' Observer 
 
'Hands-down the best debut I've read in years' The Times 
 
'A beautiful and powerful novel about the true and sometimes painful depths of love' Candice Carty-Williams, bestselling author of QUEENIE 
 
'An unforgettable debut... it's Sally Rooney meets Michaela Coel meets Teju Cole' New York Times 
 
'A love song to Black art and thought' Yaa Gyasi, bestselling author of HOMEGOING and TRANSCENDENT KINGDOM 
 
Two young people meet at a pub in South East London. Both are Black British, both won scholarships to private schools where they struggled to belong, both are now artists - he a photographer, she a dancer - trying to make their mark in a city that by turns celebrates and rejects them. Tentatively, tenderly, they fall in love. But two people who seem destined to be together can still be torn apart by fear and violence. 
 
At once an achingly beautiful love story and a potent insight into race and masculinity, Open Water asks what it means to be a person in a world that sees you only as a Black body, to be vulnerable when you are only respected for strength, to find safety in love, only to lose it. With gorgeous, soulful intensity, Caleb Azumah Nelson has written the most essential British debut of recent years. 
 
'An amazing debut novel. You should read this book. Let's hear it for Caleb Azumah Nelson, also known as the future' Benjamin Zephaniah 
 
'A short, poetic and intellectual meditation on art and a relationship between a young couple' Bernardine Evaristo, author of GIRL, WOMAN, OTHER 
 
'A very touching and heartfelt book' Diana Evans, award-winning author of ORDINARY PEOPLE 
 
'A lyrical modern love story, brilliant on music and art, race and London life, I enjoyed it hugely' David Nicholls, author of ONE DAY and SWEET SORROW 
 
'Caleb is a star in the making' Nikesh Shukla, editor of THE GOOD IMMIGRANT and BROWN BABY 
 
'A stunning piece of art' Bolu Babalola, bestselling author of LOVE IN COLOUR 
 
'For those that are missing the tentative depiction of love in Normal People, Caleb Azumah Nelson's Open Water is set to become one of 2021's unmissable books. Utterly transporting, it'll leave you weeping and in awe.' Stylist 
 
'An exhilarating new voice in British fiction' Vogue 
 
'A poetic novel about Black identity and first love in the capital from one of Britain's most exciting young voices' Harper's Bazaar 
 
'An intense, elegant debut' Guardian 
 
WINNER OF THE COSTA FIRST NOVEL AWARD 
WINNER OF DEBUT NOVEL OF THE YEAR AT THE BRITISH BOOK AWARDS 
SHORTLISTED FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES YOUNG WRITER OF THE YEAR AWARD 
WINNER OF THE BAD FORM BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 
SHORTLISTED FOR WATERSTONES BOOK OF THE YEAR 
LONGLISTED FOR THE DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE, THE DESMOND ELLIOTT PRIZE AND THE GORDON BURN PRIZE 
A NATIONAL BOOK AWARD '5 UNDER 35' HONOREE 
 
Caleb Azumah Nelson's new novel SMALL WORLDS is available now

Open Water is a beautifully, delicately written novel about love, for self and others, about being seen, about vulnerability and mental health. Sentence by sentence, it oozes longing and grace. Caleb is a star in the making.

Nikesh Shukla, editor of THE GOOD IMMIGRANT and author of BROWN BABY

For those that are missing the tentative depiction of love in Normal People, Caleb Azumah Nelson's Open Water is set to become one of 2021's unmissable books. Utterly transporting, it'll leave you weeping and in awe.

An exhilarating new voice in British fiction

A short, sharp poetic burst of a novel; it crystallises the torments and heat of young love brilliantly

Andrew McMillan, award-winning author of PHYSICAL

Open Water is tender poetry, a love song to Black art and thought, an exploration of intimacy and vulnerability between two young artists learning to be soft with each other in a world that hardens against black people

Yaa Gyasi, bestselling author of HOMEGOING

A beautiful and powerful novel about the true and sometimes painful depths of love

Candice Carty-Williams, Sunday Times bestselling author of QUEENIE

This is an amazing debut novel. It's a beautifully narrated, intelligently crafted piece of love that goes deep, then goes deeper. You should read this book. Let's hear it for Caleb Azumah Nelson, also known as the future

Benjamin Zephaniah, award-winning poet, playwright and novelist

Open Water is a very touching and heartfelt book, passionately written, which brings London to life in a painterly, emotive way. I love its musical richness and espousal of the power of the arts - pictures, sounds, movement

Diana Evans, Women’s Prize shortlisted author of ORDINARY PEOPLE

Open Water encapsulates what it means to fall in love, explores what it means to move through the world whilst black, and explores the beautiful melding of the two. I will always remember it, and I will always return to this novel. A stunning piece of art.

Bolu Babalola, Sunday Times bestselling author of LOVE IN COLOUR

A poetic novel about Black identity and first love in the capital from one of Britain's most exciting young voices

A debut already attracting awards season buzz, this shattering love story about two Black British artists is a compelling insight into race and masculinity. You'll remember this author's name

Open Water is a powerful portrayal of the way that systemic violence can make a person forget softness and vulnerability. It exposes the failure of language to encapsulate feeling and illuminates the love and the anger that rage around the edges of everything

Jessica Andrews, award-winning author of SALTWATER

Open Water is about defiance, mourning, art and music. It is an ode to being a full human being in a society that does not see you that way. It is about clinging to love in a world heavy with injustice and violence. There is not a wasted page

Rowan Hisayo Buchanan, award-winning author of HARMLESS DAYS

Open Water has a delicate, painterly quality while packing a real emotional punch. Caleb Azumah Nelson is a real talent

Olivia Sudjic, author of SYMPATHY, EXPOSURE and ASYLUM ROAD

Open Water is the most mesmerising read. Caleb Azumah Nelson writes voice like a young Baldwin, placing himself both inside and outside the world he describes. Open Water drew me in, hypnotised me and left me, a few hours later, both devastated and a little high. This is the kind of novel which doesn't let go.

Jan Carson, award-winning author of THE FIRE STARTERS

Lush, urban, black, British and beautiful

Inua Ellams, award-winning playwright and poet

Kayo Chingonyi, award-winning author of KUMUKANDA

Set to the rhythms of jazz and hip hop, Open Water is an unforgettable story about making art and making a home in another person. In language bursting with grief and joy, Caleb Azumah Nelson has written the ode to Black creativity, love, and survival that we need right now

A brilliant debut whose gentleness and joyfulness are as profound as its examination of the cost of living in a racist society

In this achingly tender and intensely moving debut, two Black artists fall in and out of love in South London. Featuring a stunning opening chapter, vulnerability, loss, masculinity and longing are covered. Written in a second person narrative, this is a majestic debut

A hotly tipped new voice in British fiction.

A stunning debut novel...Written in a unique second-person style, and with profound insight into race and masculinity, it's a tender love story you won't forget

Open Water bristles with intelligence and sensuality ... an irresistible debut with the promise of greatness

Nelson's impressive first novel is tender, lyrical, and all-consuming. . . A truly exceptional debut

One of the most beautiful novels I've ever read, impossible to put down even as it made my heart ache. Just stunning

This short debut novel is both a sweet, painful love story to savour and an account of what it means to live in fear in your own city, to be viewed simply as a black body and never truly seen. Nelson's prose is intense and lyrical, with a pleasing scattering of musical references.

Considering the ways identity shapes experience, Open Water is a soulful meditation on art and love

A lyrical modern love story, just 200 pages but brilliant on music and art, race and London life, I enjoyed it hugely.

David Nicholls, author of ONE DAY and SWEET SORROW

Caleb's debut is soulful and poetic, celebrating and exploring the varying emotions of a blossoming romance while offering an insight into race and masculinity

A book about Black bodies and strength, vulnerability and fear, with a magnetic romance woven throughout that entrances the reader

Nelson's writing is so accomplished it's hard to believe it comes from a debut author. . . A raw and unvarnished look at what it means to be Black and British

An exciting, ambitious debut... while an elegance of style is a hallmark of Azumah Nelson's storytelling, there is bold risk-taking in his choices too

Caleb Azumah Nelson's debut novel is an intimate, London-set story of two artists falling in love, learning to show tenderness to one another in a society that's anything but. Nelson writes with grace and poignancy; it's a memorable first novel.

A riveting love story... Written in lyrical and propulsive prose, a searing debut

An emotionally intelligent and tender tale of first love. . . what makes it remarkable is its bracing and nuanced exploration of black masculinity. An abundance of cultural references are framed through the perspective of a black British male - one seldom seen in modern British fiction. It is worth questioning why, and whose stories get to be told. Thankfully, Azumah Nelson has told this tale of art, love and black identity. And what a gift it is.'

[A] once-in-a-blue-moon kind of read, a truly remarkable debut from a gifted young wordsmith . . . The novel is at once a celebration of Black love and Black art and expression; thoroughly unforgettable

Lyrical . . . this emotionally rich debut tells a budding love story against backdrops of Black culture, joy, and pain

Caleb Azumah Nelson is a British-Ghanaian writer and photographer living in South East London. His first novel, OPEN WATER, won the Costa First Novel Award and Debut of the Year at the British Book Awards, and was a number-one Times bestseller. It was also shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize, the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, Waterstones Book of the Year, and longlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize and the Desmond Elliott Prize. He was selected as a National Book Foundation '5 under 35' honoree by Brit Bennett.

Two young people meet at a pub in South East London. Both are Black British, both won scholarships to private schools where they struggled to belong, both are now artists - he a photographer, she a dancer - trying to make their mark in a city that by turns celebrates and rejects them. Tentatively, tenderly, they fall in love. But two people who seem destined to be together can still be torn apart by fear and violence. 
 
At once an achingly beautiful love story and a potent insight into race and masculinity, Open Water asks what it means to be a person in a world that sees you only as a Black body, to be vulnerable when you are only respected for strength, to find safety in love, only to lose it. With gorgeous, soulful intensity, Caleb Azumah Nelson has written the most essential British debut of recent years.

Caleb Azumah Nelson

Nelson writes about closeness, with family, with lovers, with art, as careful, essential labour

An affecting meditation on the migrant experience

Caleb Azumah Nelson's writing is touching, heartfelt, and musically rich

Small Worlds is an emotionally astute novel that cements this 29-year-old south London author as one of the UK's best.

SMALL WORLDS is a miracle of observation, of attention and attunement. Caleb Azumah Nelson writes prose that is unmatched in its musicality and sensitivity. A gorgeous, rhapsodic, wise novel

In his beautiful new novel Nelson summons the sounds of Black Youth, love and discovery to the page. A celebration of the heart

Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, author of CHAIN-GANG ALL-STARS and FRIDAY BLACK

Caleb Azumah Nelson's Open Water was a slim masterpiece. His second novel, Small Worlds is a similarly lapidary coming-of-age story set over three years in the life of an extraordinary young man.

A gentle reflection on self-discovery

If you haven't had a chance to read Caleb Azumah Nelson's debut, Open Water, about a gorgeous love affair in modern-day London, then please do; it'll keep you occupied until his new release is out on 11 May, which is about fathers and sons, the power of dance and how one man can create a life he loves

A wonderful, dexterous work. Caleb Azumah Nelson explores modes of blackness in ways that are enriching and invigorating

Caleb Azumah Nelson's writing captures nostalgia-that most essential of sentiments-like no other. I was immersed, transported, and at the same time affirmed in the familiar. Gorgeous

Sareeta Domingo, author of IF I DON'T HAVE YOU

Small Worlds grabs you by the heart and holds tightly, revealing a story as beautiful and as lyrical as the words that adorn the pages.

Both intimate and inviting, Azumah Nelson weaves not just worlds but exquisite universes with his words. SMALL WORLDS is a masterful exploration of love, masculinity, coming of age and community, and Azumah Nelson's dextrous, sublime pen brings it into dazzling life.

A book which is alert and enlivening, at once serious and a pleasure to read

Small Worlds is a Vermeer universe of a novel, of warmth, deep feeling, aching and gorgeousness. To read is to be hugged by a rich brown oak, ever stretching out. It is as charged as it is earthed. It is wonderful.

It's a story about finding both one's identity and one's place in the world.

moving, intimate, and sizzling hot

Steeped in nostalgia, grief and heartbreak, yet somehow still hopeful, this is one of the best books I've read all year.

This story about rebuilding small worlds - places in which to feel beautiful and free - is itself a thing of beauty

A coming-of-age story set in London's Peckham and Ghana that follows Stephen's journey to manhood'

The one thing that can solve Stephen's problems is dancing. Dancing with his best friend Adeline, two-stepping around the living room, crooning and grooving, so close their heads might touch. Dancing alone, at home, to his father's records, uncovering parts of a man he has never truly known. 
 
Stephen has only ever known himself in song. But what becomes of him when the music fades? When his father begins to speak of shame and sacrifice, when his home is no longer his own? How will he find space for himself: a place where he can feel beautiful, a place he might feel free? 
 
Set over the course of three summers in Stephen's life, from London to Ghana and back again, Small Worlds is an exhilarating and expansive novel about the worlds we build for ourselves, the worlds we live, dance and love within.

Caleb Azumah Nelson

Praise for Small Worlds

Nelson writes about closeness, with family, with lovers, with art, as careful, essential labour

A mesmerising Peckham love story

An affecting meditation on the migrant experience

Nelson writes about closeness, with family, with lovers, with art, as careful, essential labour

A mesmerising Peckham love story

An affecting meditation on the migrant experience

Nelson writes about closeness, with family, with lovers, with art, as careful, essential labour

A mesmerising Peckham love story

An affecting meditation on the migrant experience

Books by Caleb Azumah Nelson

Articles featuring Caleb Azumah Nelson

Short audiobooks you can enjoy in one sitting

Books to read if you’re going through a break-up

Short books to read when you’re overwhelmed

Comforting books to read if you’re heartbroken

‘I met Malorie Blackman and was starstruck’: 21 Questions with Caleb Azumah Nelson

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