Small Worlds: THE TOP TEN SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

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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. British-Ghanaian writer Caleb Azumah Nelson’s debut novel Open Water was a slam dunk. The South Londoner’s ode to music, aspiration and love met with instant hyperbolic praise, and his trophy cabinet (every young writer has one of course) heaved under the weight of numerous awards. Not one to hang about, just two years later the 29-year-old is publishing his much anticipated follow-up.

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.Every word is like a song, so if you can imagine a book that's like a whole album full of them, it would be this. Be sure to give this one a read, friends. Congrats to Caleb Azumah Nelson on another great release, and thanks to Grove Atlantic for my copy! His purposeful inclusion of the phrase "small worlds" throughout the story perfectly encapsulates that feeling of pure unadulterated joy from that spark of connection you feel with another person or group during a moment of intimacy over a shared experience. It moved me in a way I wasn't expecting and made me appreciate the small worlds I've built and continue to build with the ones I hold close to me. But it's not always sunshine and rainbows, there's also grief. As someone's who's lost a parent young, I could relate all too well. 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 want him to be more open, to allow me the space to say, I feel broken, and I’m slowly taking myself apart, so I might build myself up once more" Stephen has only ever known himself in song. But what becomes of him when the music fades? When his father begins to speak of shame and sacrifice, when his home is no longer his own? How will he find space for himself: a place where he can feel beautiful, a place he might feel free? As we were playing, my fingers slipped, an odd note coming from my horn. The mistake didn’t go unnoticed, but we continued on. It made me grateful for the freedom to be in that space, to make a mistake; and how that mistake might be beautiful to the right ear; how Del heard that odd note and followed with her own, adjusting her thrum; how the rest of us followed that twist and shift, surrendering to whatever unknown we were going towards. It was there that I noticed I only really knew myself in song. In the quiet, in the freedom, in the surrender.”One of the things I highlighted in one of my distracted moments was the times when remembering and forgetting were paired in phrases. Also, I remembered that a key phrase for me in Open Water was about an “honest meeting”, a meeting where words weren’t needed because of the openness between the people involved. Here, there is a big focus on being “open”, on seeking for emotional depth in relationships. Your support changes lives. Find out how you can help us help more people by signing up for a subscription 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.” An exhilarating and expansive new novel about fathers and sons, faith and friendship from Caleb Azumah Nelson, the no.1 bestselling, award-winning author of Open Water 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

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 heard that Nelson wrote this novel in the space of three months. And while that’s super-impressive, it might also prove that it needed more work. 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... If I ever become half as good of a writer as Caleb Azumah Nelson is, I'll die happy. Small Worlds is more than the sum of its parts; it's a masterpiece. I teared up multiple times from how palpably lyrical the prose is. Five stars don't do this book justice.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. Maybe this is all we need sometimes, for someone else to believe in the possibilities you see for yourself.”