OPEN WATER by Caleb Azumah Nelson

It is hard to describe my feelings about Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson. This is Nelson’s debut novel (his second work, Small Worlds, is also now published).

It is hard to describe my feelings about Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson. This is Nelson’s debut novel (his second work, Small Worlds, is also now published).

At 147 pages long, this is strictly a novella, and yet I have read books of three times that length that did not move me the way this poetic, beautiful piece of work did.

This is a story of two young people falling in love in London. Both are black - he a photographer, she is a dancer. During the year she studies in Dublin.

At first friends, they slowly fall deeply in love, in a way too few of us experience in life. They get to know each other intimately as people, as friends. The description as they entwine their lives is visceral.

Their love is set against the ongoing issues of race in the United Kingdom, with the targeting of young black men by police, as well as gang activities. The fear of these activities impacting - or worse - their lives rips at the fabric of the relationship. This is an analysis of the things that may not directly impact a relationship, but infiltrate its foundation.

The joy of this novel is the lyrical writing of Nelson. This is not a regular prose. The descriptions are haunting in their beauty. So often I would get to the end of a paragraph or section and find myself holding my breath, wishing I could hold onto that moment forever.

Here’s the part that made me stop absolutely dead in my tracks - it struck my heart. Maybe it’s the phase of life I am currently in, or maybe it’s just extraordinary writing.

Yeah, it’s extraordinary writing.

This is a love story but not a romance.

This is a snapshot of blackness in a white city.

This is a reflection on the lives we live in youthful summers.

This is, frankly, a work of art.

This won’t be for everyone. Once upon a time I think I’d have struggled with it. Alas, I have found this at the time I needed it.

Open Water opens the heart.