After all the good reviews of Open Waters (which I haven’t read yet), I want to read this author.

We follow Stephen, the first generation of Ghanaian immigrants in the UK. As a teenager, he’s been struggling with the usual stuff of his age, like love, his future, hobbies, passions, etc.

His real passion is dancing and music, which his family disagrees with because they want him to pursue a career in something more traditional. At the same time, he sees how his parents deal with their roots. He loves his mother, but his relationship with his dad is complicated. He’s closer to his big brother Raymond. Every place or interaction with other, he described as a “small world”.

This book has a lot of elements that I would like. But the narration was so unexpressive, the happiest moment sounded emotionless, and it was impossible to distinguish between characters. The writing style wasn’t for me either. The prose was unnecessary poetic, and repetitive. And I’m not a great fan of the music theme.
Sadly, I didn’t enjoy it, but I probably blame the narration because it never caught my attention.

Thanks to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for an advanced listening copy.

The audiobook narration by Nelson was so perfect, it really took this book to a new level for me.

Nelson's prose is absolutely beautiful and breathtaking- even descriptions of mundane everyday tasks turned into these captivating interactions.

There are so many dynamics at play, and I love the theme of music weaved throughout. Music moves so many of us, but it's always interesting to see how it shapes a specific person's life.

This was my first book by Caleb Azumah Nelson, but I will be definitely reading his first book. It took me a little bit to get into it, but ended up really enjoying it!

Prose intertwined with poetry? Definitely this book. The beautiful writing presented the reader with a coming-of-age story of a man who deals with generational trauma and his own identity as a musician and dancer in a world in which still arts are not considered a serious way of making money. I felt all the bits of the immigrant experience of his parents, and I love how this touch my soul when all those little truths embed in us when repeated often enough. Yet, at the same time, I feel like this would be a much better experience for me when read not listening to audiobooks. I feel like audiobooks should not only be produced as a medium but should make reading more accessible for people in a rush. More importantly, it should be made with people who cannot read at all in mind. There, I said it. With this book, even listening in the slowest setting, I had trouble understanding. The narrator, being the author as well, read it so emotionless that very often the point of the story was lost on me. There was monotony to it hence hard to focus and follow. With all that, I cannot with a good conscience give any stars to it because the audiobook gets 1, the story itself? I truly don't know how much of it I missed because of the poor narration. I would love to pick up the actual book and see how I feel about it, yet now I'm not even super motivated to do even that.

So summarizing the rant: if the premise is interesting to you enough, do yourself a favor and go with the text. And writing this pains me as it excludes those who don't have this opportunity.

Caleb Azumah Nelson is such an amazing writer and we, as readers, are so lucky to be able to read his work. Small Worlds was a incredibly fantastic book and I can't get over how lyrical and dreamy Nelson's writing is. The audiobook was so good, too. The fact that it's narrated by Caleb Azumah Nelson adds a whole other level of fantastic to it. It's suburb.

This is the first time I'm reading from this author and the fact that the author himself narrated the audiobook is evident because he isn't the best. It was a slow book and it didn't keep my attention.

I really enjoyed Caleb Azumah Nelson’s debut novel, Open Water, but I flat out loved Small Worlds.

Stephen is a musician and a second-generation immigrant in London, and, in Small Worlds, Nelson takes us through three of Stephen’s summers following his high school graduation. On the surface, I don’t have much in common with Nelson’s main character and my college years are starting to feel distant. Even so, Nelson’s observations on family, relationships, career goals, and belonging were wrenchingly relatable.

Small Worlds revolves around music and is written lyrically enough to sometimes feel like music in and of itself. It doesn’t hurt that a couple chapters in I switched to the audiobook, which is narrated by the author and really accentuated the musicality of his writing. Interestingly, I counted 25 times that Nelson used the words “small world” in this book, and far from feeling repetitive, they felt like a natural refrain.

Some have critiqued the fact that the novel’s scope is not as targeted as Open Water; however, Small World’s slice-of-life approach really worked for me. All in all, I highly recommend this novel, especially on audiobook!

Thank you to Grove Atlantic, Dreamscape Media, and Netgalley for the ARCs. (Out 7/18)

I was told to read ‘Open Water’ not long after it came out by a highly trusted reader friend… and never got around to it. She assured me it was lyrically written, poetic and beautiful. Given how gorgeous ‘Small Worlds’ is I’m sure that’s all true. I am glad that this was my introduction to Caleb Azumah Nelson’s writing though. I read the audiobook for this book, and I can’t overstate how good it was. There’s always something special in hearing the author read their own work, and to no surprise he does a wonderful job telling this story. The rhythm and rhyme to the prose is obvious when spoken aloud. If flows and brings the story to life, creating in its own way a small world (I really couldn’t resist, but I’m also struggling to think of another way to put it, so there it is)

This is beautiful. That’s all. Incredibly successful storytelling, and a truly touching and emotional exploration of life, relationships, and finding the places in the world where you fit.

I was very excited to read Small Worlds by Caleb Azumah Nelson since I loved his debut novel Open Water. I quite enjoyed this book! It’s about Stephen, a young Black man, who loves dancing and music. I liked how this novel explores Stephen’s relationships with his family and his need to pursue his creativity. He wants to make music and the music references such as J Dilla enhanced the story. As Stephen travels to Ghana it was fun to travel along with him. I listened to the audiobook narrated by the author and the narration was great! I’d definitely continue to read more from this author!

𝗔𝗨𝗗𝗜𝗢𝗕𝗢𝗢𝗞 𝗥𝗘𝗩𝗜𝗘𝗪

Thank you #partner @dreamscape_media for my #gifted ALC.

𝗦𝗺𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱𝘀
𝗕𝘆 𝗖𝗮𝗹𝗲𝗯 𝗔𝘇𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗵 𝗡𝗲𝗹𝘀𝗼𝗻
𝗣𝘂𝗯: 𝟳/𝟭𝟴/𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟯

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I have had my eye on Nelson's debut, Open Water, since it came out. So when I saw the opportunity to read an early copy of his sophomore novel, I jumped at the chance.

📖 𝗔𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁: Small Worlds is a coming-of-age story about Stephen, a first generation Londoner of Ghanian parents. It takes place over the course of three summers, between Ghana and London, as Stephen grapples with life, love, family, friendship and those great big decisions that shape lives. At its core, this is a novel about a young man finding his place in the world.

💭𝗧𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀: In addition to being a celebrated photographer, Caleb Azumah Nelson is a highly-praised, award-winning author - and now I understand why. His writing is just outstanding. His prose is fluid, poetic, affecting, and majestic. As I read this via audiobook, I had the immense pleasure of listening to Small Worlds read in the author's voice. This was just wonderful; I actually went back and listened a second time. Nelson is in his 20s, and it's clear he is wise beyond his years to have such a profound understanding of humanity. Brilliant.

The book is just 272 pages, and the audiobook (at 2x speed) is just a few short hours. I highly, highly recommend Small Worlds, and will be adding Open Water to my shelf immediately.

📌 Small Worlds is out tomorrow

***Review as posted to my Instagram account today.
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Small Worlds struck a chord in me that I hadn't expected.

I missed the hype around Caleb Azumah Nelson the first time, so I was pleased to be able to read his second book before its release.
I expected his writing style to be lyrical (because everybody said so), but to experience it myself still somehow surprised me. He managed to describe small actions, everyday actions, in such a new and beautiful way that I started to reevaluate them, appreciate them more (sounds sappy, but it's true). Nelson's lyrical and rhythmic writing style feels like a love letter to life.

For a book on the shorter end, it packs a punch.
The story encompasses three years of the main character's life, manages to paint a vivid picture of everything that happens (like a film in your mind) and discusses a number of deep and important topics, ranging from the choice of what path to take in life, the experience of immigrants in a country who doesn't really want you, the experience of their children managing parents' expectations as well as own desires and dreams, to the unfairness of the systems that are in place (politics and police brutality for one on a bigger scale—but also the expectations we have for our loved ones and how we handle them, especially when they are not met, on a smaller scale).
Most of all, the question of “home”. Is it a place, or can it be a person? And can you find your home in yourself?
I admit, I cried a little a few times.


To the audiobook itself:
I loved that the author read the book himself, and his voice was absolutely pleasant to listen to. He definitely has a future in voice acting too, if he wanted to.
The only flaw: the constant audible inhaling before he continued to speak irritated me a lot.

Unfortunately, this was a miss for me. The author has a beautiful voice, but he isn't a voice actor -- the result being that I found it difficult to follow the dialogue, since I often couldn't tell who was speaking or figured it out only when a given line was done.

Additionally, the writing style overall didn't work for me: it felt self-consciously poetic (the repeated phrases about dancing and music, for example) and Deeply Meaningful in a YA way.

I'm sorry to leave a negative review -- my sense is that the author's going to write some terrific books in future, but this isn't one of them.

Small Worlds is truly an exercise in lyrical prose; Caleb Azumah Nelson can compose sentences that feel like legitimate music flowing from the page. Considering the thematic importance of music and dance on this novel, Nelson’s deliberate use of repetition throughout the book really added an extra layer of beauty to his overall message.

All that aside, I can’t say I loved this book, and it comes down to one main issue: I didn’t feel connected to any of the characters. Despite the beautiful writing, the protagonist fell a bit flat for me. There’s a whole lot of him pontificating the difficulties of his life, and not a lot of effort to being the reader into those difficulties in a way that made me care. This got better on the final third of the novel; when the focus shifts a bit more to the MC’s attempt to better understand his father, I found myself much more invested. The secondary characters were extremely flat, and I was not really invested in the love story aspect - which took up a good chunk of the novel - mainly because the female character just did not have any sort of development to make her seem real.

I also did this as an audiobook, and while I typically enjoy when an author narrates, with fiction I think that sometimes can result in a flat delivery. The narration was relatively monotone, and I sort of wish I had read a digital or physical copy instead.

But even with those critiques, this really was a lovely book with a lot of really solid moments of contemplation. Again, Nelson’s prose soars - I can nearly forgive the slight lack of character development simply based on the strength of the writing. I haven’t read his previous book, and definitely plan to pick it up soon.

I hadn't read Nelson's debut novel, OPEN WATER, so I didn't know what to expect. I think I was expecting something louder but instead this was a tightly crafted novel, filled with subtle and beautiful prose, that delved deep into issues of generational trauma for second generation immigrants, weighed down by the sacrifices and dashed hopes of their parents. The penultimate chapter, with Stephen's often distant and strict father finallly letting his son in, was mesmerizing. Great work.

Thank you to Dreamscape and @netgalley for giving me an advance copy of the audiobook.

#novel #bookstagram #igbooks #audiobooks #netgalley

I wasn’t sure I liked poetry until I read Open Water. So obviously I was so excited to read the next book! This time I did audio and omg.
It was incredible.
I loved the story.
The rhythm of the sentences.
And the narration was perfect.

Thanks to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for an advanced listening copy.

This book covers the multitudes of normal life in a poetic and lyrical manner. I experienced this book as an audio rather than simply listened to it. I would recommend this method of reading it. The narrator is the author and this always allows the listener to connect to the story. The whole book sounded like spoken word performance.

Many themes are explored, such as isolation, connection, grief, culture, music and love. One sentence that I had to rewind and listen to again was “To sleep with anger, to sleep with grief is not to sleep at all.” I just thought well said! You could listen to this book again and again taking new things from it every time.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for an audio ARC. This is a voluntary review of my own thoughts.

In a recent interview by LitHub, Caleb Azumah Nelson described SMALL WORLDS as a novel about “Family and community. Falling in love for the first time. The joys and freedom of music and dance. Feeling like everything is possible in the summertime.”

It’s also a story about father-son relationships and the invisible patterns we inherit from our parents, some good and some devastating. It’s about London and Ghana and what it means to leave home. The narrative moves through three summers when Stephen learns to embrace his choices, his life, his family and his future. Gorgeously written and beautifully narrated, it’s a coming-of-age story that despite its familiar trajectory feels fresh and original.

The author narrates his own novel which adds brillant layers of nuance to the dialogue and atmosphere. Nelson’s reading gives us a taste of jazz with phrasing repeated and modified, wording slightly altered in a new context, tones shifting, but coalescing into a whole intricate piece in the end. Phrases like “small worlds,” “making space,” “shame,” “disappearing” and “I needed that. That was spiritual” repeat, loop and return, shifting in meaning and growing in significance.

At the end of the book, you could hear how Caleb Azumah Nelson’s voice was thick with emotion as he narrated the final scene between Stephen and his father. The last word “free” was one of the most touching moments I’ve heard in an audiobook (and I listen to several audiobooks every week). I loved his first novel, OPEN WATER, and I loved SMALL WORLDS just as much, maybe more. Do not miss this lovely, lovely book. It will touch your heart.

Thank you Dreamscape Media and NetGalley for the early audiobook access.

Small Worlds is a gorgeous sophomore novel from Caleb Azumah Nelson, the author of Open Water. The book follows Stephen, a London-born young black man of Ghanaian descent, as he experiences all the joyous and devastating aspects of growing up.

Nelson's writing is joyous, tender, and poetic, making him stand out and pave the way for a new generation of writers. I was blown away by the honesty and sincerity that radiates from every sentence, and wished that the book was ten times longer, just so I could stay with these characters. Nelson writes with the skill of a much older writer and I am looking forward to following his career in the decades to come.

The audiobook is narrated by the author, giving more insight into the intended rhythm and pacing. Listening to the audiobook felt like experiencing a spoken-word poetry performance and I couldn't praise the end product highly enough.

Stephen is an 18 year old first generation Londoner who dreams of being a musician. His family wants him to graduate from university with a useful degree. The book follows Stephen through three summers as he gains his independence and tries to find his path in life.

The author narrates the book and he has a wonderful speaking voice. It is so hypnotic that I found myself drifting in and out of the book. While the writing is beautiful, it did not hold my attention.

A beautiful coming of age story, of a son of Ghanians immigrants in London. Artfully written tale of belonging, grief, coming into terms of who one is.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an early access to this beautiful piece of art!