Small Worlds: THE TOP TEN SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

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As for London I have relatives there (coincidentally the south-east) and that was where I spent my summers so those parts scratched a specific itch in my brain. I’ve only know myself in song, between notes, in that place where language won't suffice but the drums might, might speak for us, might speak for what is on our hearts, and in this moment, as the music gahers pace, looping round once more, passing frenzy, approaching ecstasy, all my dance moves are my father's”

I'm gonna start out strong and say that reading Open Water convinced me that Caleb Azumah Nelson is one of the greatest writers alive. Small Worlds cemented that. And, well, I liked it, I guess, but I wasn’t in love. Nelson did showcase more of his potent nature, but there was also disappointing filler. So, you can say I am in two worlds when it comes to this one. After this, I would still look forward to reading anything that Nelson will write, and this gave me entry into a world I would like to revisit. Especially the deep cuts by J Dilla...Now that could make for interesting concept: A young protagonist torn between his own world - a relatable position, as we all try to build a place where we can thrive with the ones we love and feel ourselves - and the world around him. But nothing here is worked through in a stringent manner, it's a text heavily reliant on moody writing and heavy-handed plot points that treat small and big tragedies alike. Let's take Stephen's attempt to go to university: He feels lonely and out of place, and it's depicted like a Shakespearean plight. So the reader wonders: Why doesn't he act and try to make friends? Why the self-pity? And plot holes abound: When Stephen is so passionate about music, why do we hardly hear that he plays the trumpet, that he works towards performing, that he hangs out with bands, etc.?

rounded downwards. I enjoyed this slightly less than Nelson's debut novel Open Water, from which Small Worlds felt like a natural progression. It's clear that he's growing as a novelist while maintaining the core features of what worked so well for him last time, but he threw in too many discordant elements this time, signaling his wider and deeper ambitions. Thank you to Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion. I couldn't be more grateful that I got to be one of the first reviewers. Intergenerational trauma is characterised by the estrangement of fathers and sons, stemming from paternal disappointment and rejection, following the sacrifices that come with migration. Towards the conclusion it becomes a governing theme, and although it works well as a coda it would have been more impactful had it been signposted earlier. C.A. Nelson weaved a wonderful mosaic of rhythm and blues suffused with a vibrating excitement between memory and present. That said, the story didn’t have the punch of his previous work ( Open Water). Perhaps I was expecting something even more penetrating on immigrant struggle , ethnic diversity, or racial issues. The last section tied most of the story together but unfortunately felt hurried. The narrative although expressive, at times was crumbling and repetitive (poetic license?), and the prose seemed forced, convoluted in an maze of words that tried to dazzle but in the end missed the point. I didn’t feel like myself there. I didn’t like this me, who was insecure, and rarely at ease; who felt like he was living in a city with no community to lean on, no one to just spend some time with; who not knowing how to dismantle his loneliness, cocooned, retreated.”

Much like the highly praised Open Water, Caleb Azumah Nelson's second novel is lyrical and poetically ambitious: Rendered in an intense, dramatic voice, we accompany our narrator and protagonist Stephen during three summers after his high school graduation, so in a transitory phase of life. And this motif of transit(ion) is central, as we learn about the migration history of Stephen's parents and his own journey to Ghana, his brother's path to becoming a father, and Stephen's dream of striking a romantic relationship with his friend Del and becoming a musician. All narrative strands of this coming-of-age novel relate to familial trauma and experiences of racism, particularly in Great Britain. Like Open Water, Small Worlds isn't just a book, just a novel. It's a playlist, a poem, a song. It's a work of art, a place you want to disappear into. For anyone worried that Small Worlds won't be as good as Open Water, let me reassure you. It's just as good. Caleb Azumah Nelson is so incredibly talented that reading his writing feels like looking directly into the sun. All that being said, I didn’t find this book as compelling as Open Water. As I’ve already said, I found myself being distracted by repeating phrases and the very fact of that distraction indicates that I wasn’t fully engaged in the book: in a different context I would have noticed the repetition but I wouldn’t have felt the desire to count it. And the main story arc is fairly conventional and unsurprising which means the novel really stands or falls on the writing, which I simultaneously managed to admire and be slightly disengaged by.

When I say music, I don't mean just the literal playlist (love the Open Water one), or the way Nelson can translate into text the music his characters are listening to or creating, but the actual lyricism of his prose. It's breathtaking and melodic, repeats the theme in just the right places and made me choke up multiple times throughout the book. I've read some prose that thinks itself musical, but nothing like this. If writing is a craft this is a master at work. At the end of the book, I feel that I would definitely like to read more novels by this author, but I would recommend his debut above this one. I'm making a bit of a habit of 3.5* books at the moment where I have to decide whether to round up or down - here the decision is based solely on the fact that I preferred Open Water and gave that 4 stars.A short, poetic and intellectual meditation on art and a relationship between a young couple' Bernardine Evaristo, Booker prize-winning author of GIRL, WOMAN, OTHER Now here’s the thing, this book did not cohesively come together for me. In a nutshell, there are two main plots: 1) Stephen’s romance with Del 2) Stephen’s relationship to his parents and their immigrant story. The sad thing is that one story is more successful (and interesting) than the other. And the writing for these two was like night and day. 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.' KATIE KITAMURA, author of INTIMACIES The rhythms of Small Worldsare a feature of Azumah Nelson's quiet, particular ear and of a profound engagement with music. Nelson writes about closeness, with family, with lovers, with art, as careful, essential labour' RAVEN LEILANI, award-winning author of LUSTER When I wrote my review of Open Water, I said it was like listening to a song and feeling all kinds of emotions without hearing the words. And precisely the same happened to me while reading Small Worlds. Music is a significant theme in this story, and the words and sentences in Small Worlds dance together in a harmonious rhythm in highs and lows. I love this kind of writing, and I can completely drown in it, but to be honest, I need a little bit more to love a story fully. In this case, I found the pacing too slow, and too little happened on my journey through Stephen’s life while, at the same time, I gobbled up those beautiful sentences.