Caleb Azumah Nelson has done it again! Written with the beautiful prose that readers come to expect, he writes the story of Stephen a young Ghanese-British man finishing school and moving to the Midlands to study, It tackles a range of issues including police violence, depression, first love, loss, family, exploring ones roots and father son relationships.

My only criticism of this is that it is too similar to his first novel Open Water.

It took me a little bit to get into this, but once I was, I was hooked. This has beautiful writing and really transports you into the story.

I am disappointed to say that SMALL WORLDS was not for me, which is unfortunate as I really enjoyed Nelson's debut novella. This novel was a slog to get through - I wanted to DNF it several times - because of the uneven pacing and overly contemplative story, which at times chose to focus on the most boring minute details over the meat of the plot. Meanwhile the writing, which I had found so poetic and enjoyable in the author's previous work, did not stand out to me. The sum of the uninteresting parts thus created a book that I did not particularly enjoy, despite the very real themes and relevant issues it raised and explored.

Caleb Azumah Nelson’s sophomore novel, Small Worlds does not disappoint. Readers and fans of Nelson’s debut, Open Water can breathe a sigh of relief and continue to look forward to Small Worlds with high hopes!

Small Worlds is lyrical and emotive. In Nelson’s signature manner, the writing in Small Worlds is poetic with emphasis on repeated phrases that feel quite wholesome while simultaneously reminding the reader that everything will be alright in this small world of ours.

Small Worlds follows Stephen’s life as he navigates identity, love, intimacy, passion vs profession and above all the complex relationship between immigrant parents and their hopes for their intersectional children. Small Worlds is about the cocoon we build for ourselves, how we leave the world that our parent’s and ancestors built to add to it, to transform, to love and to become. It is about the significance of our small world and the realization that the world of the person next to you could be vastly different, connected in some small or big way to you, connecting us through art and music and love and culture and race.

A significant storyline in this novel is one that navigates Stephen and his father’s relationship. Nelson describes how Stephen’s Ghanaian-British father has ambitions for his children, how he does not share his past with his children, how Stephen does not know what his father’s dreams were or his struggles before he came to London. The immigrant father urge to show absolutely no emotions and to say things that often break children in half, that make them feel unloved and disposable. The lack of warmth and communication is transforming. Often, all it takes is talking freely.

Small Worlds is the type of book that you realize you needed to read as you’re reading it.

Thank you #GroveAtlantic, #CalebAzumahNelson & #Netgalley for this e-ARC of #SmallWorlds. The book is available in North America on July 18th, 2023!

I went into Small Worlds with some trepidation. Nelson's debut, Open Water, came out in 2021 and was a perfect match for that particular moment: a politically astute novella about a young Black man living the in world where police violence can upend life in an instant. I wasn't a fan of the prose in Open Water - it felt clumsy, like Nelson was trying too hard to sound poetic - but I was willing to forgive the over-earnestness in a debut that was relatively short and on point. My fear that Small Worlds would be more of the same proved to be correct. The forced prose is back with a vengeance. What I was willing to overlook in a debut feels less forgivable now. Small Worlds is also longer than Open Water and is less urgent. Much of the book lives in the world of angsty teenagers, which I'm just not interested in at all. The story is also propelled by a palpable heterosexual energy that can feel a bit on the nose. This certainly wasn't the worst thing I read this year and plenty of smart readers rate this highly. It just didn’t work for me. Many thanks to the US publisher, Grove Press, for making a review copy available in advance of publication.

Small Worlds is the solidification of Caleb Azumah Nelson’s status as one of the greatest new voices in literature.

I was absolutely astonished by Nelson’s debut novel, Open Water, when I read it back in 2021. I have basically been shoving it at anyone who will read it, and I plan on doing the same with this novel.

Small Worlds is set over the course of three summers, details the complicated relationship between a father and son, and is a glorious and beautiful testament to dancing, the intimacy and wonder of shared moments, and the experience of a man torn between two countries he calls home. The plot is somewhat meandering at times, but is engaging purely upon the execution of its themes and its absolutely gorgeous prose.

If you are looking for a novel that reads like a poem, with lines that will leave you in awe at the beauty of the world, please pick this up! I adored it.

“Gentle storytelling” is the first thing that comes to mind while reading this book. The writing is poetic, yet the plot is somewhat sparse: the book never lingers where it’s not needed, takes its time when the characters call for it. There are recurring themes and terms that help to create a universe—a small world?—to lose yourself in. Slightly heavy-handed at times with the self-reference, but that’s the only negative for me. The music, the food, the dancing, it’s all so beautiful. I could not recommend this book more, and can’t wait to read his first, which I still haven’t gotten around to.

There is little new to learn about the immigrant experience in Small Worlds. It does not explore unfamiliar, unknown ground. The protagonist has no dreams for his future that isn’t experienced in many coming of age stories. The protagonist, Stephen, born in England to Ghanian parents, articulates a story universal to immigrants everywhere in the world. He wants to find his place in the world where he is accepted and free to be himself.

However, what sets it apart from other similar stories is how it is absorbed through the senses. I would describe it as an exquisite meditation on the immigrant experience. While at times the language was over the top, for the most part I felt I was like I was in a boat, gently rocked through rich imagery and the distinctive repetition of a ballad.

As the book opens, Stephen is on the cusp of change. As is common, his Ghanian father has specific expectations for him. He emigrated with his own big dreams that were crushed by typical impediments. He transferred his hopes to his son, perhaps altered as he accommodated his expectations to the reality of being an outsider.

Stephen has had a happy life. He grows up in an insular Ghanian community in the Peckham neighborhood of London. It is deeply entrenched in the rituals, traditions, food and dancing of Ghana. When together, there is joy and deep bonds. These strong and loving connections of friends and extended family were critical to negotiate the disappointments, poverty, and prejudice experienced in their new homeland. Their goals are transferred to their children.

Stephen grows up feeling safe, if not somewhat insecure, within this net. He is all about music and dancing. Dancing frees him and gives him happiness to his core. He is a musician, a trumpeter, who hopes to win a scholarship to study and make music his life’s work.

When his dream deflates, the story begins to take shape. He leaves the girl he loves to go to university to study the accounting mandated by his father and is ill equipped to succeed in this unfamiliar world. The first time away from what he knows and loves, unable to connect to this course of study, make friends, or keep his girl who by the way did get that music scholarship.

Told in three parts, we journey with Stephen as he flounders. Heartbroken, disillusioned, disconnected and at risk of violence as a black man in England, we travel with Stephen back to his old neighborhood and then to Ghana, to explore his roots. This is a grounding experience for him that helps him upon his return.

It is not a novel with much action. In fact, it is extremely slow moving and at times repetitive. But I was sucked in by the beautiful language.

A description of his grief:

The mourning is immediate. I open my mouth to call for someone but there is no voice, no rhythm, no music. I open my mouth to call for someone, but there is no one there to tend my grief. I open my mouth to call for someone but the world is quiet now. I’m all alone.

Admittedly, I was disadvantaged because there was reference on almost every page to songs I was mostly unfamiliar with. If the reader knows the music, they would really be in tune with Stephen’s emotions enriching the reading experience.

Although the narrative is tightly focused, the political racial reality seeps in. Most obviously in the police murder of Mark Duggan in 2011 and the bloody protests and police violence that followed. The prejudice is there throughout but only to make you aware of that additional dimension of struggle.

If you are in the mood to slow down, this is a fascinating read. The emphasis is put on the repetitive day to day rather than the big events. While the reader will savor in detail and almost be able to smell Stephen’s mother cooking favorite dishes later replicated by her son, an event that turns the story may be reduced to a paragraph.

The author, Caleb Azumah Nelson, has already won many honors. His short story, “Pray,” was shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award and his debut novel, Open Water, won the Costa First Novel Award, the British Book Award for Debut Fiction. In an interview last month in Open County Mag, he said, “I wanted to take my sentences past this thing of knowledge and more toward feeling.”

Indeed he does.

I loved Nelson’s poetic writing style and enjoyed following the main character Stephen through his coming-of-age story. I thought it was unique that Nelson set the book within three summers of the main character’s life. I loved the different themes explored within this novel, such as complex family relationships, loneliness, etc. However, I sometimes found it difficult to follow the story because it felt very clunky and hurried.

Caleb Azumah Nelson is a treasure. This book was amazing. It left me thinking and going back over it far after I turned the last page.. What a book. I will read anything Nelson writes.

Small Worlds was such a treasure. I appreciated the themes of black masculinity, friendship, family and faith. I found this to be very readable, and very beautiful. Thank you to the publisher for my review copy!

Another masterpiece by Caleb Azumah Nelson. I honestly didn’t expect to personally relate to this book. Stephen and I could not be any more different. It’s definitely because we both grew up in an immigrant household. Yes, not all families are the same but you still can’t deny that most, if not all, immigrants had the same challenges. I loved how the book not only showed Stephen’s POV but also showed his dad’s POV. I love how almost everything was realistic. The emotions, characters, character developments, relationships (romantic and not), etc. To be honest, I literally can’t write a proper review about this book because I’m still processing everything I read lol. But yeah, it was an interesting, eye opening, and emotional read.

Thank you NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

To start, this is a beautifully crafted and written novel. While I was reading it, I felt as if I was reading a piece of classic literatures. It follows Stephen, a child of immigrants from Ghana who left the country as young adults to start an arguably more difficult life in London. Stephen deals with some very real and relatable life experiences, including the isolation of leaving your tight knit family and neighborhood for the loneliness of college, the feeling of being lost during young adulthood, dealing with grief and first love and most importantly how your home country affects your life when you’ve not lived there. This is a very slow book. For a novel sitting under three hundred pages, it took me a very long time to read. That is why if reminds me of a classic novel, because I while I wasn’t rushing to pick it up, when I did it felt like I was reading a master writer.

I received a digital advanced review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

What an incredible book! I can't even tell you how much I loved this book without turning this review into an entire chapter. It is beautifully written, very emotional and will have readers annotating the heck out of it. Caleb Azumah Nelson is an amazing writer, one who knows how to open the hearts of his readers. The characters are relatable, especially if you come from an immigrant family.

I will read anything this author puts out from now on because he writes from his soul. I recommend this book wholeheartedly and with enthusiasm.

Captivated by the writing from the first page, I knew I wouldn’t survive overcoming my feelings when they hit the lowest they could reach. I finished the book in a week, drowning in the space Caleb let me stay.

The thing about Caleb’s writing is that he lets me experience the life he tells by feeling every bit of it instead of just telling me about it, whether it is discrimination, vulnerability, or even the celebration of life. Instead of listing or repeating what the History books tell us, he invites us all to feel the less beautiful part of the world and how his people emerge to make their own ‘space’ unrestrained.

His prose is rhythmical and beautiful; even mundane things become a moment of worship. The moment you start reading what he wants to say, you can’t look away.

While the core values from his previous book, Open Water, are still apparent, I love how he explores more and broadens his topic. Simply put, ‘Small Worlds’ may be about Stephen’s growth across three summers. But it is also about the community he cherishes the most; it’s about building his peaceful life; it’s about fixing his relationship with his family. It’s about him finding love and expressing it loudly. His ‘Small Worlds’ is everything from the moment he opens his eyes until he closes them again; it’s the space that lets him exist.

I wish I could explain better, but putting my feelings into words feels like limiting it to only what language can convey.

“[…] language always has to be exact and I never know 𝘦𝘹𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘭𝘺 how I feel.”

At last, may we all find our own ‘small worlds’ which allow us to feel free and beautiful. 𝘛𝘰 𝘣𝘦.

Wow. Amazing writing! This was my first read by Caleb, and what a way to start! I will definitely be reaching for a copy of his other work as soon as I can

Small Worlds is a coming of age story following Steven, a second generation Ghanaian living in London. Set over the course of three summers, we follow Steven as he becomes an adult and grapples with the expectations set by family and society around him.

Nelson’s prose throughout the book with flowing phrases and connections to music is something truly unique. While showing us Stevens’ “small world” we also get to see the “small worlds” of those around him. Specifically focusing on complex relationships with his father, processing grief, and navigating romantic relationships.

While I loved the musical references throughout this book and the exploration of complicated family dynamics, the overall writing style seemed to take away from the story for me. It felt like the focus was more centered around the prose than the overall story. The overuse of the title “small worlds” felt like I was being told the connections I was supposed to make a bit too much. While Nelson’s prose is beautiful it just felt a bit too overdone in this one.

While some things fell flat for me this was still a great character study and coming of age story. I did like how we followed Steven throughout different times in his life.

This was my first book I’ve read by Nelson and I will definitely be checking out Open Water next and continue to read from this author!

Thank you to NetGally and Grove Atlantic for the ARC!

Absolutely stunning new work from an exciting new voice in the literary world. Small Worlds builds on the promise of Nelson's debut Open Water, and delivers the reader to the world of Stephen, a second generation Ghanaian living in London in his early twenties, trying to navigate between the London world he's known his entire life, and the Ghanaian culture that his parents have brought with them and infused into their community.

Nelson's writing is exceptional and unique, flowing repeated phrases and using language like musical rhythms, infusing the story with a feeling of familiarity that reminds the reader of old friendships, knowing the catch phrases and responses that will come up even before they are spoken. Nelson shares the internal emotions and yearning of the characters, drawing out their conflicted desires and impulses, carefully building an environment that allow the reader to fully embrace the feelings and essence of the characters experiences and journeys.

I was particularly impacted by Nelson's steady and insightful telling of the story of Stephen's father, and their pained conflict, saving the father's backstory until the end, giving the reader a deep and revelatory understanding of his motivations, his scars, and his efforts.

Truly an exceptional book, I have found myself unable to put it down, both from my desire to see where the narrative was headed, but also for the shear pleasure of reading the author's words and language. This book felt in several sections like music to me, swirling, lifting me up, giving me energy and the sensation of movement.

Five stars without a doubt, and I can not wait to read Nelson's next work.

Ugh, Caleb Azumah Nelson’s writing is just so lovely. That’s it, that’s the post.

Having loved Open Water, I was eager to read Small Worlds and I wasn’t disappointed. Small Worlds follows Stephen through the turbulent times at the end of high school, into post-secondary, and into full adulthood. A young Black man of Ghanaian descent, Stephen navigates the challenges of this age (friends, romance, parents, work, culture) in an environment that isn’t always supportive and is at times downright cruel and dangerous. As a reader, you’re rooting for him to succeed in his search for love, happiness, and fulfillment and for him to find a way across the yawning generational rift between him and his father.

Despite the harshness that exists in the world, in invoking the “small worlds” all around us, Nelson makes readers look at the spots of community. With examples of groups of youth sitting in a park, a couple huddled together, families gathering over food and music he shows us warm, caring places where people can be at ease with each other and inside their skins. I couldn’t help envisioning each of these scenes as though they were standing under a small streetlight; inside the circle is warmth, light, safety, caring, outside is the dark, unpredictable unknown.

Nelson’s constant circling back to the small world concept he’s developed with the title is one of the joys of the book and it’s changed the way I look at the world around me. I notice these small worlds as I walk around my neighbourhood; it’s elemental, this need for safety and community. It’s why, when he’s pulled from his community, when relationships are fractured, he’s so lost and adrift. And yet, while the larger world holds danger and uncertainty, it’s also one he must venture into as he visits Ghana to understand more about his parents.

As it was in Open Water, the star of this book is Caleb Azumah Nelson’s prose. As his main character Stephen is a jazz musician, so Nelson plays his instrument with rhythm, recurrent motifs, and improvisation. It’s a book that begs to be read aloud and if you’re an audiobook fan, this would most certainly be a great one to listen to. Yes, there were a few places that it might have wavered slightly into overly sentimental territory (a few too many riffs on bookstagram’s pet peeve of letting out a breath someone didn’t know they were holding) but overall it is musical and poetic and I loved it. In addition, there is apparently a Spotify playlist which would definitely be fantastic listening for during or after reading.

Caleb Azumah Nelson never ceases to amaze me. The way he writes such deep and visceral characters with so many complex emotions just baffles me. I felt everything Stephen was feeling. I thought the way that music was conveyed as a lifeblood was so compelling. His writing is truly just all-encompassing and poetic.

I sobbed at the end of this book and I even cried a few times throughout. This book felt like a love letter to the human experience. The grief, the heartache, the loss of a life not lived, the yearning for change, and the forgiveness we grant others to make peace within ourselves. These are all things, we as human beings, can connect and relate to.