Music is central to the plot of Small Worlds, the sophomore novel by Caleb Azumah Nelson. Music moves our protagonist, Stephen, through the three summers of his life after school, through failed attempts at higher education, at jobs, at romance and at reconciliation. Music also cascades off the page with prose so lyrical that it’s breathtaking, building and breaking, fading away and roaring back again. There’s pure magic in how Nelson writes.

Much like his debut, Open Water, Nelson focuses on the lives of black youth in London - their triumphs and their struggles - and explores the small worlds that Stephen creates through the relationships in his life, as well as the identity struggles of being the child of immigrants, of having a feet in two worlds and neither feeling entirely like home.

While I loved the relatability of his relationship with Del, it was the exploration and evolution of Stephen’s tenuous father-son relationship in the latter third of the book that really moved me.

I am once again under the spell of the incredible writing of Caleb Azumah Nelson. The words are so accurate, it resonates a lot with me. Her way of talking about family, love, finding your place, being part of a community, etc. He inspires me enormously, he is one of my biggest literary favorites in recent years, this author. It is a privilege to be able to read these words and that he shares this vulnerability with us, I feel lucky to discover them. There are really sentences that come out of the book to get inside me, it's a very strange and restorative feeling at the same time. I have the impression of rediscovering a lot of my experience and things that make sense. The number of tears shed...

I truly have no complaints. The characters, the pacing, the story, the music, the writing, the ending. The couple typos that inevitably popped up due to it being an advanced copy just made the story feel more intimate overall. I don't know how it could get better but I'll be there to check when this book comes out, and to supplement this review with a million quotes and excerpts. Thank you for reading and go preorder this book.

Thanks to Penguin General UK - Fig Tree, Hamish Hamilton, Viking, Penguin Life, Penguin Business and Netgalley for provinding me with this Book!

First of everyone must read this book, it is such a beautiful poetic read. I loved it!! Kudos to Caleb Azumah Nelson for this lovely book. It was such a natural read and I could relate to most parts as the story is set in UK and Ghana. If you love music, whatever the genre you should read this book.

The reference to musicians in this book is amazing; A B Crentsil, Pat Thomas, Ebo Taylor, Tony Allen, Ebenezer Obey, Nelly Jadakiss, Isley Brothers, Anita Baker, Eddie Kendricks, Bill Withers, Jay Z, Kanye West, reference to Mtv Base. This book needs a playlist to accompany the read.

I loved the fact that there were references to Ga (minja bo, me shwe, Kaa fo,etc). The reference to Ghana the details; Labadi Beach, West Legon, Kaneshie, Cape Coast, North Ridge. I love the reference to the World Cup match where Suarez prevented Ghana from qualifying to the next stage (sad moment) but well described by Caleb.

The range of themes in this story; family, friendship, love, marriage, grief. I am happy this story is being adapted into a mini series (production company backed by BBC Studios).

Okay enough of what I loved about it. The book is about Stephen and his life. He grew up in London (Peckham) and has deep love for music, stems from the fact that his dad loves music (one of his first jobs in London was to organize weekly parties). Stephen plays the trumpet and occasionally joins a group of friends who share the same love; music.

Stephen and Del get close and let’s say they start going out. Fast forward, Stephen doesn’t make the grades for music school and has to do Business (the course his dad wants him to do because he doesn’t think music on its own has good career prospects, Ghanaian parents hmm). Del on the other hand makes the grades and goes to music school.

Stephen not finding himself in a university far away from family and friends, resorts to dropping out of school. In between all of this, Del moves on and starts dating someone else. Stephen is heartbroken and finds solace in his trumpet. As you expect, Stephen’s dad does not take his son dropping out of school lightly at all. He sees him as a “shame” and in the heat of one of their confrontations asks Stephen to leave the house.

Oh did I forget to mention Annie.. Stephen & Annie start dating but ends sooner than expected when she has to relocate to Brazil.

Stephen starts working in a Ghanaian restaurant as a chef (his new found love for cooking and creating recipes). He reconciles with Del (his first love) who also dropped out of school and starting pursuing DJing full time..

On the other hand there is Ray (Stephen’s brother), who is more or less going on the path of what his Ghanaian dad expects. Finished school, started a family, has a kid and moved out of home. You can imagine the indirect pressure Stephen faces.

A lot happens after this and when I say a lot I mean a lot. You need to read this book to find out and you will love it. Stephen reconciles with his dad and Stephen visits Ghana ( I personally loved this part of the book).

Small Worlds will be published on 11 May 2023 and don’t think twice, just grab a copy!!.

“Since the one thing which might solve our problems is dancing, it only makes sense that…”

“Maybe this is all we need sometimes, for someone else to believe in the possibilities you see for yourself”

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin for providing me with an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

I hadn’t read Open Water, so Small Worlds was my first taste of Caleb Azumah Nelson’s work. And it felt like a literal taste - this isn’t just a book. It’s a menu, a recipe, a playlist, a slice of summer (much needed in this cold winter). He captures the sensations of summer and of family life so deftly that it was like watching a film, tasting the food, listening to the music first hand. At certain points, it was pure poetry.

However, there was also a whiff of desperation. The author repeats certain lines incessantly throughout the novel - I can only assume out of a sense of poetical obligation - but these fall flat. Rather than building to a climax, they are simply repetitive, not adding any depth to the prose, but becoming merely annoying.

There’s real potential in Caleb Azumah Nelson. He’s adept at capturing the soul of a community, it seems. I wanted to be in the world with them. But he can afford to lose some of the flounciness. This book hits the hardest with its simplicity.

I adore this book! It's filled to the brim with music, rhythm and love, but also melancholy and sadness. Can't wait to see what the author does next.

Thank you SO much Netgalley and Penguin for giving me the opportunity to read and review the new book by Caleb Azumah Nelson!
I screamed when I got the email that Penguin had accepted my request as I LOVED Open Water.
This book had the same vibes as Open Water, especially the similarities in boy likes girl best friend, doesn't know what to do about it type of thing.
3 stars : Even though I didn't enjoy this as much as Open Water I still appreciate the BEAUTIFUL writing, Caleb is truly very talented and I really do look forward to all Caleb's future work.
But the plot for me felt a bit lost? I struggled with what was going on at some points in the book as I found it was lost within the lengthy paragraphs but I will say I NEED A PLAYLIST FOR EVERY SINGLE SONG MENTIONED IN THIS BOOK! Thank you.
Overall I did enjoy this book but not as much as I thought I would've due to the high expectations I placed on it after Open Water. (MY OWN FAULT).
But following Stephen and his story it touches on a LOT of different types of losses and how he deals with these losses. I feel very neutral about this book I really enjoyed reading about Stephen but I just felt lost half the time IM SO SORRY. Love you Caleb and Penguin

This was so much more than I could have hoped for, I have fallen head over heels for it.

The words have such rhythm, with the repetition of lines throughout the story feeling like the chorus of a song. With the smell of Ghanaian food permeating the story and the soundtrack pulsing its way through every page, this is a real feast for the senses. We follow Stephen over 3 summers and it really feels like we live a lifetime with him and his family. This story looks at what it means to belong; to a family, to friends, to a lover, to an employer, to the music, to a language, to a country, to yourself. Characters that you will grieve with, rejoice with and fall in love with.

Open Water was one of my favourites of 2021 and Small Worlds is now a favourite of 2023. It deserves more than the 5 stars provided.

gorgeous - no other way to describe it. have never seen someone articulate that haze between childhood and adulthood, that sense of loss, the way music is framed and the way love, grief, anger are all intertwined. a book to stay with me for a long time actually

Caleb Azumah Nelson’s Small Worlds is a beautiful, eloquent exploration of love, loss and finding a place of safety for a person of colour in a white world. Beginning in 2010, the novel follows Stephen, the youngest son of a Ghanaian couple living in Peckham.
Stephen spends a glorious summer dancing and playing music with friends while waiting and hoping for news of the scholarship which will fund his university place. He and Del have been each other’s best friend for over a decade during which Stephen has fallen in love with her but is afraid to make the first move. Over the summer, Stephen’s plans for the future are thrown into disarray leading eventually to a chasm opening up between himself and his father.
From its first sentence, Nelson’s moving, heartfelt novel unfolds in gorgeously rhythmic prose. Themes of family, loss, grief and home run through it with racism a constant background hum. Characters retreat into ‘small worlds’, safe harbours of community, familiarity and love with faith, music, dance and particularly food a comfort in a harsh world. Nelson’s writing is wonderfully evocative, heartrending in its depiction of the aching sadness of grief and the damage done by fear and disappointment. He writes with such a poignant tenderness for these characters they feel like family. It ends with hope, at least for Stephen and for his father.

I want to like Caleb Azumah Nelson because he's a fairly young British writer and because I read that he used to work in an Apple store and now he's made it as a writer, but I just don't think he's good. Where I forgave Open Water for its forced lines, its maudlin prose and a certain jejuneness, Small Worlds simply continues in that vein, perhaps even heightens it. I thought his next book would feel different and read more mature, but sadly it doesn't. So, before I say what I didn't like about this book, I will say, if Open Water struck a chord for you then this will probably do the same thing. So there's that. But for me, it was all the same problems. Nelson tries to end every paragraph with some over-the-top 'poetic' line that always falls flat; he repeats lines throughout the book as if they have some sort of power but I found them to be much the same as the other trying-too-hard lines and their insistent repetitions throughout the novel only made that worse; he uses the title, the concept of us having 'small worlds' within us, around us, with those we love, frequently too, and again, it felt forced and a little pseudo-philosophical. The father/son relationship felt rushed. The romantic relationship didn't feel wholly different to what we've seen in Open Water . . . It seems like Nelson is just trying to hit the same note as his successful debut, but sadly that shows no growth. Frankly I just couldn't bring myself to care about a single thing in the book. That said, when it's published in May, I have no doubt it'll do fairly well and get good reviews from the masses. So I'll just continue grumbling under my breath in the corner of the party like some Bernhard narrator. Thanks to Penguin/Grove Press for the advance copy.

With Open Water, Caleb Azumah Nelson proved himself to be one of the best voices of today. Going into this, I was cautious and worried that what I experienced with Open Water couldn't be replicated. I was wrong to think this.

Small Worlds takes the sensitivity and poetic delivery of Open Water and threads it through the wonderful narrative(s). I've rarely felt such warmth through prose and the execution is incredibly successful.

Following Stephen’s story, we explore many kinds of loss: death, relationships, identity (and more) and seeing him deal with these issues really hit close to home.

So many references to great music throughout and I know that my summer playlist is going to be heavily influenced by the tracks mentioned here.

Give your heart a workout and read this book; love every word. Love as much as you possibly can.

This sophomore book by Nelson is highly anticipated after a huge success of Open Water. I loved OW and his poetic writing style, music references, addressing of improtant theme like institutional racism. It was a novella so short but had a lingering effect.

His writing is just as gorgeously poetic as OW, and the fans would be pleased with the writing. It’s a beautiful coming-of-age story, with focus on uncertainty and anxiety that come with youth, but also that comes with being a black man in Britain. Very similar to OW. But in this novel Nelson expanded the theme scope to include family and roots, immigration and mental health as well.

It’s a beautiful book of one’s life (small world) and connections to others (small worlds). Of love with your self, family, lovers and friends, and your community.

Still not sure how I feel about the part where it suddenly jumps many years. And I feel like Part 1 (the coming-of-age part where the characters were younger) was more poetic in OW style and the writing felt suddenly more wordy than poetic in Part 2. It might be all intentional as in Part 1 the characters are adults in the real world and could no longer live just by “feelings”. I don’t know. It just felt like Part 1 and 2 are different books.

All in all, this is a beautiful book that made me emotional and my heart ache. I think fans of OW will be satisfied😃

Another great one from Caleb!

Loved Open Water last year so was an easy choice to dive straight into his second novel.

Absolutely love his style of writing and the emotion I felt flowing through the pages. As someone who’s dealing with grief so many moments resonated and will always remember the line about “walking in the light someone has left behind”.

It’s so difficult to put into words, but Small Worlds is definitely one of those novels I’ll be thinking about for days to come and of course recommending to all!

Looking forward to seeing how it plays out on screen too!

What a beautiful and powerful story by Caleb. This story is full of immaculate poetic writing and Caleb I believe is one of the best writers in the world.

This story focuses on the life of Stephen through three summers as he makes big life decisions, suffers huge relationship break downs and sees the beauty in life through dance and music.

You can really feel the growth Stephen goes through in his life. His move to university, his trip to Ghana and it helps you realise we have all felt these feelings before.
I really enjoyed exploring the relationship of Stephen and his Father. The description of the expectations that Fathers expect of their children is so deeply emotional and harrowing and makes you think twice about whether you are making your Father proud.

This is such a powerful and important book to read and I will always recommend Caleb’s books to anyone!

Open Water was a hard book to follow but Small Worlds is just as lyrical and sensory.
It follows Stephen, the summer before he starts university in 2010 and follows him over subsequent summers. It's about him finding himself, friends, family, love and grief.
The depiction of food and music used perfectly and the poetic prose is to be savoured.

If you enjoyed Open Water, you will LOVE this book.

Caleb Azumah Nelson doesn't just write a story. It's a poem, a playlist, a song for London.

Our young protagonist navigates that terrifying act of coming of age - university. Building a place for himself where he can thrive with loved ones and grow into the person he thinks he can be. But it is never quite so simple, is it? Bring in migration, marginalisation, and intergenerational trauma. Bring in the fear of vulnerability, of being open to love, and the fear of failure.

Then drop it all in the culture capital that is London. You can feel the rhythm of the streets, the raucous noise, the vibrant colours, the smells and sounds. Bring in all the music of my young adulthood. Bring in the the smells of home cooked goodness, the memories of your mum pouring her heart and soul into feeding her family.

Bring it all together, wrap it in what is more poetry than prose, and then you MIGHT start to understand what this book is about.

This is a second book by the author I’ve read. I liked this one just as much. It was a slower character driven novel and I thoroughly enjoyed the family dynamics.

Much like the highly praised Open Water, Caleb Azumah Nelson's second novel is highly 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.

Music is important on the plot level: Not only because Stephen and Del are musicians and music is important for just about every character, Nelson also constantly gives the events depicted a soundtrack by referring to musicians and records. The text is also structured by repeating certain sentences like a chorus. Thus, the language picks up a rhythm that is then again reflected in the idea that dancing is the only thing that can solve Stephen's problems, which sounds poetic, but is of course nonsense: Issues like police brutality, the reverberations of the slave trade, youthful disorientation and other topics the text mentions will not be danced away anytime soon. What is meant here is that Stephen shuts himself away in his own small world, a world he intends to protect, where he knows himself in music.

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.?

There are some really heavy parts about intergenerational trauma, marginalization, and migration in here, but when they appear at the same level of emotional intensity as a young man who is unable to tell a girl that he likes her, it takes away from the depth of the story as a whole. Stephen, who as a second-generation immigrant is confronted with all kinds of intercultural challenges, sometimes seems like a teenager when he, who has the time and space to explore his place in the world, sounds overly dramatic about minutiae. I see that Nelson intended to show Stephen's perspective as a young person who tries to find their place in the world as a Black man in London, but the result does not quite come together: Too often, the world happens to Stephen although he would have agency, but he remains passive, and it's unclear why.

So unfortunately, I have to admit that during large parts of this very wordy text, I was rather bored, because nothing much happens, and nothing surprising happens either. I felt crushed by the over-the-top poetic language and wished for more depth: Just because the music is loud, doesn't mean it's automatically deep or particularly good.