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Caleb Azumah Nelson

Open Water Hardcover – 4 Feb. 2021

by Caleb Azumah Nelson (Author)

110 ratings

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'A tender and touching love story, beautifully told' Observer 10 Best Debut Novelists of 2021

'A beautiful and powerful novel about the true and sometimes painful depths of love' Candice Carty-Williams, bestselling author of QUEENIE

'A love song to Black art and thought' Yaa Gyasi, bestselling author of HOMEGOING

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 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

Print length

160 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Viking
Publication date

4 Feb. 2021
Dimensions

13.8 x 1.8 x 20.4 cm
ISBN-10

0241448778
ISBN-13

978-0241448779
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Product details

Publisher : Viking; 1st edition (4 Feb. 2021)
Language : English
Hardcover : 160 pages
ISBN-10 : 0241448778
ISBN-13 : 978-0241448779
Dimensions : 13.8 x 1.8 x 20.4 cm

Best Sellers Rank: 490 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 3 in Ethnography & Ethnology
- 7 in Multicultural Studies
- 9 in Political Fiction (Books)

Customer reviews:
110 ratings

Product description

Review

A beautiful and powerful novel about the true and sometimes painful depths of love -- Candice Carty-Williams, Sunday Times bestselling author of QUEENIE

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

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

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. ― 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

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 ― Elle

About the Author

Caleb Azumah Nelson is a 25-year-old British-Ghanaian writer and photographer living in South East London. His writing has been published in Litro. He was recently shortlisted for the Palm Photo Prize and won the People's Choice prize. OPEN WATER is his first novel.

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Customer reviews

5 star		59%
4 star		31%
3 star		7%
2 star		1%
1 star		1%

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S. Hunt

A debut that is clever and draws the reader in

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 6 February 2021

Verified Purchase

I was pleased Open Water was a short novel, under two hundred pages, because it allowed me to read it in two sittings. This is not a book to read a chapter, leave it for a day or two and come back to it. Once you start this intoxicating book, you cannot stop. It draws you in really intensely and doesn’t let you go. It is one of those books where atmosphere and emotion really gets its claws into the reader and doesn’t relent even after the last word has been read. By the end of this breathtakingly poetic debut novel, I was in floods of tears that would not abate. This book deals with an intense relationship between two young people who start as best friends and end up as something else. The phrase ‘two becomes one’ is used a lot in the book. They never really establish themselves as boyfriend and girlfriend but what they have between them is really powerful and absorbing. Is the relationship doomed to fail from the start? If you are expecting a happy ever after story you will be sadly disappointed. This book could be termed romantic but it is so much more than that on every level. Both struggle to articulate their thoughts and feelings and say more through silence and actions than words. Our male protagonist is battling his own demons all the way through the book. These demons cause him both inner and outer turmoil and show a different side to the character. Events conspire to rip the couple apart in every sense of the word but it is how they decide to react to those events that make the story so engaging and poignant. This novel felt fresh, different and challenging. It was a difficult read not because of content but because of the way, it pulls you in so deeply and does not let go. I personally felt like I was holding my breath the whole way through and by the end I was exhausted and an emotional wreck. These comments are not negative; in fact, they are praise for the author to be able to write something so deep that it can consume the reader to the point where they feel drained after the reading experience. The same phrases and sentences crop up repeatedly throughout the book compounding the density of the words and the tensions between the pair. Now the book is finished I feel numb because I did not want it to end and because of the tension, it built up in me. I felt a lot of apathy for these characters and feel a void now their story is over. There are not enough superlatives available to give the praise warranted to this book and its amazing author.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Spadge Nunn

A beautiful story about the pain of a deep and forbidden connection

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 4 February 2021

Verified Purchase

“The trouble is, this is trouble that you welcome.”

Have you ever accidentally fallen in love with your best friend’s girlfriend, and been terrified to cross the boundary between friendship and love? To swim out into open water and let yourself be completely vulnerable?

This book is absolutely beautiful and hooked me in right from the start. Nelson describes the pain of a deep and forbidden connection so perfectly.

The writing is beautiful. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. I just want to write ‘beautiful’ a thousand times!

I love the poetic repetition throughout and found myself going back to read over my favourite sections again and again. It was so refreshing to read about love and real emotion from a male perspective, I look forward to being able to hold a physical copy in my hands.

Favourite quote:

“The two of you, like headphone wires tangling, caught up in this something. A happy accident. A messy miracle.”

2 people found this helpful

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Alexandra C Sheppard

A dazzingly debut

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 11 February 2021

Verified Purchase

A stunningly romantic debut that reads like a love letter to London. I particularly loved the book's relationship with Black art across multiple disciplines, especially music. It's a short read but you'll want to linger over every word.

One person found this helpful

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Aoife

Beautiful and brilliant

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 4 February 2021

Open Water follows two young people as they fall in love - from the beginning of the journey to the rocky, potential end of it. Told in second person, we follow from the male perspective as he explains what it's like to find your perfect match, to be Black and British, to be British and Ghanaian, to love the soul of a person while being scared for your own.

"You know to love is to be a whole, partial, a joint, a fracture, a heart, a bone. It is to bleed and heal. It is to be in the world, honest. It is to place someone next to your beating heart, in the absolute darkness of your inner, and trust they will hold you close. To love is to trust, to trust is to have faith. How else are you meant to love?"

This book is utter poetry, and I loved every second of it. It kept stunning me over, and over again with gorgeous descriptions of that perfect, thrilling feeling of falling in love with someone - the heady feeling of becoming obsessed about what makes a person who they are, of wanting to open your mouth and drink every bit of them up so you can understand their soul and they yours.

The love in this book is pure, and powerful, and not completely perfect. Perfect in its imperfections but what I loved the most was this precious glimpse into the mind and life of a young Black man, struggling with his pride in who he was, and where he came from but also the fear for his life every time he walked out the door.

I think I have read books from BIPOC characters or authors mostly focused on the female perspective which I love, but I really felt it special to see the character's joys and fears spilled out on the pages in this one. His utter rage at what he is made to feel like, how he is treated. He is a gentle, creative soul yet because of the colour of his skin, is often made to feel like a criminal because of the authorities. And if it's not the police he's afraid of, he also has to be way of knife crime and gang crime in London, issues which also disproportionately affect young Black men.

The character's struggle to be vulnerable; to not show his fears to the girl who loves him most is so hard to read, and the fight to understand between the two of them as well is tough. The silent battle to have someone know what you are going through without having to say it and lay all your vulnerabilities on the table. To not be the "strong, Black man" society assumes you to be.

"You don't know why you're crying. Sometimes, love aches. You're not sad but bowled over."

2 people found this helpful

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Open Water Hardcover – 4 Feb. 2021

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