"Small Worlds" is the second novel by a young British-Ghananian writer and photographer, Caleb Azumah Nelson. It's a contemporary coming-of-age story of Stephen, whose family emigrated from Ghana to find a better life in England.

The novel is written in a poetic, documentary style as we follow Stephen's path to adulthood. He is a gentle soul, loves jazz, especially Coltrane, and plays trumpet, dreaming about becoming a musician. However, his father wants him to have a "real" occupation, saying that survival is more important than self-discovery and that he didn't emigrate from Ghana to have his son play in a club or cook (another of Stephen's ideas is becoming a chef.)

Stephen creates 'small worlds' to feel validated and finally free. His "small world" may be a dance floor where he surrenders to the rhythm or a space between people, which he tries to fill with meaningful words when he's with his girlfriend. He and his friends are also acutely aware of the racial tension in London, police brutality, and challenges for Black people when they try to, as he says, "occupy those bodies of theirs." Often, it's simply dangerous to be a young Black man in London.

It's a slow-moving novel that sometimes feels more like a poem with repeating phrases. Music is essential in this book, so keeping with the theme, the repetitions sound like a chorus line. Many musings about remembering and forgetting come from Stephen's building bridges between his roots in Ghana and his new place, England. Sometimes, the style became even too poetic for my taste, losing its impact. However, I found Caleb Azumah Nelson's latest novel to be a fascinating expression of the author's fresh voice, filled with tenderness and humility.

Growing up in London, Stephen has loved to dancing. It’s been a grounding influence in his life as we jump with him through the years between London and Ghana.

After feeling alienated by his father and unsure of a path forward, Stephan returns to Ghana to learn more about his parents and himself.

In fact the rhythm of this desire can be found on the page through repetition of lines throughout the book.

The dialogue felt a little clunky and the lack of action by Stephen in certain circumstances felt questionable.

If you’re interested in exploring a story a coming of age, immigration story, check this out.

This book is so beautifully written, looking at the intricacies of life through Stephen’s character, from his school years through to adulthood, and all the joyful and messy and painful parts in between. It looks at the connections made between people, how they can bloom and fray and how sometimes, it feels as though you share a small world with other people. Caleb Azumah Nelson has a way of exploring emotion and humanity that really makes an impact, focusing not only on the big moments but also the small ones. It was hard to read his relationship with his father, my heart aching for Stephen. This book truly shows life’s complexities with nuanced writing, delving into Stephen’s world.

I received a free copy of this book. All views are my own.

This is only my first Caleb Azumah Nelson book and it did not disappoint! Right from the beginning I was captivated by Nelson's writing style and the overall feel of the story. This one was incredibly heartfelt, soulful, and lyrical. This definitely deserves a reread.

I loved open water so I had high expectations for small worlds and I loved it even more than open water.
Caleb's narrating his books makes them even more special and personal and of course his beautiful poetic writing.

The book follows Stephen as he navigates his life in Ghana and London trying to find himself. we get to see his perspective and struggles with family, friendships, love and grief, and I loved how these different aspects were portrayed.

I also loved that his book are short and quick reads without feeling the need in dragging the storylines.

3.75 stars
I appreciate Nelson’s consistency with his 2nd piece of work. I like how Nelson writes his protagonist’s stream of consciousness. His characters thoughts are purposeful to moving along the narrative. Their thoughts inform us of his character’s past. His character’s thoughts portray how expansive people’s feelings are and what they’re rooted in. Nelson’s characters go through the constant struggle of figuring out how to share their feelings with others when they don’t have the words to articulate them. His work is artful and that is clear through Stephen’s passion and necessity for dance. I didn’t realize until the end of the audiobook that the author narrates this himself. I always appreciate when an author does this because they know just how to articulate the narrative to the audience.

Small Worlds is a coming of age story with lovely writing and an endearing main character. I listened to the audio and the author narrates it and he did such a good job with it.

Stephen is born to immigrants from Ghana and has pressure from his family and expectations for his life. As he goes from his high school self to his university self, we see Stephen grow and start to shed those expectations and embrace himself.

This was a good look at people growing out of relationships and changing the ways they navigate them. Also a very good look at grief and the ways it can permeate.

Caleb Azumah Nelson really captures the aimlessness of this time period -- not knowing exactly what is next but going with the flow.

Overall the writing of this book is so beautiful, and definitely makes me excited to check out the author's past and future work. I especially loved the second to last chapter and the end -- so beautifully done.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book!

I haven't stopped crying.
A beautifully written look into familial lines and trauma the ways we are connected.
The ending shook me.

I enjoyed this story so much! Open Waters was one of my favorite of 2022 ams this love story and coming of age is equally the same in goodness. I enjoyed that music was an element of the coming age love that the two characters were able to experience. I thought the characters were insightful with great dialogue and thought. I highly recommend this book.

Caleb Azumah Nelson is, in my opinion, one of the world's greatest living authors.

He writes prose so lyrical and lush that it feels as though you're reading magical realism. Someone doesn't walk up and stand next to you, in his writing someone "magics" themselves next to you. Music on the radio doesn't simply play, it's music that identifies you, helps you find yourself, heals you, teaches you about love and tragedy.

I loved this story about Stephen, traversing summers through both London and Ghana.

I loved that this novel explored what felt like the immortality of being young, the slow realization that age finds us all, that tragedies happen to other people but a tragedy too close makes you realize it always could have been you.

Stephen's journey takes us through love, finding his own identity when life throws up a roadblock to his dreams. It speaks of intergenerational trauma, the expectations from immigrants, the ways that we as humans make excuses to disconnect from each other as though time isn't a precious, nebulous thing. This book talked of racism and what it means to be black, not belonging in London because of it, but being too foreign when he goes back to Ghana.

A mirror looking at a mirror.

I will read anything that this man writes forever and ever.

This book was such a beautiful listen/read. It was lyrical in an organic way, nothing felt forced and everything just flowed. I loved when phrases were repeated-- it was like a song, and it really drove home the themes of this book. I loved how the MC's love for music really showed through every stage of his life.

The exploration of grief, generational trauma, parental relationships, and holding space was hard to read at times, but well written. Some things hit close to home for me, but there are some things that I, personally, can never fully understand.

The last 25% of this book was a heartbreakingly beautiful sucker punch. There are moments throughout the book which had tears welling in my eyes but the entire last quarter felt like a fist squeezed tightly around my heart.

The book came full circle showing how things change and also how they stay the same. How our traumas create our realities and guide our interactions with others. The last sentence, in the audiobook, was filled with so much emotion that I had a hard time not crying as well. I'm glad I listened to this book, because Caleb did an amazing job telling this story.

Thanks to Netgalley and Dreamscape Media for this ALC.

Another absolutely beautifully written book which is only enhanced by listening to it. It's poetry and beautiful and heartbreaking and I could read over and over again.

I think this book will absolutely have an audience, but the writing is just too flowery for me. Not to say that it isn't beautiful, but I struggle with a book when the main focus is the writing over plot, characters etc.

Thank you to @NetGalley and @Dreamscape for the ALC

Nelson creates a young man full of passion and mired in the 1st generation dilemma. Does he do what he thinks his parents want after leaving their homes and sacrificing their dreams for future generations or does he do what he loves. A trip back to Ghana after the loss of his mother, opens an entirely new world to Stephen as a man and a son.

Music is a theme that anchors this short contemplative novel. Based in London it was a nice bit of nostalgia for me to listen, as Stephen attends University in Nottingham (as I did in 2000, although I was at The Nottingham Trent across town) and talks about his dad’s music like Craig David, which were jams when I was a student there. So I also felt old.

This is an enjoyable and heartfelt story of self discovery. I do think that having a narrator with a little more life to their voice would have tapped into the deeper sentiment that Nelson wrote, but does not quite emote. I am usually a fan of authors as narrators, but in this case Nelson’s soft deep voice lulled me out of the story, especially when the emotion of the scene should have been high. It isn’t bad, just could have been better. I would love to hear him do a reading of something on an app like Calm, his voice is that soothing.

When I was approved for an audiobook ARC of Caleb Azumah Nelson’s new novel, ‘Small Worlds’ I was over the moon. This is just, if not moreso, as lyrical, poetic and beautiful as ‘Open Water’. I let it wash over me like the warm light of golden hour, a memory, a record spinning softly in an adjacent room… which is exactly the feeling of the book, the energy radiating from it.

This is a novel of transitions; from childhood to adulthood in the years following graduation, processing faith, navigating loss, understanding identity and relationships and particularly those between fathers and their sons and romantic feelings for a constant in your life. It captures the sense of being lost and confused and misunderstood that will be familiar to most people, and explores the complexity of immigration and race in a subtle and effective way — that unique and nuanced experience.

As I mentioned the audiobook is narrated by the author and WOW — I highly recommend listening. It’s so moving to hear him speak.

I loved this so much. Let it wash over you, too. It’s out July 18, from Dreamscape Media on audio and in Print from Grove Press in the US.