Small Worlds
THE TOP TEN SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
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- £5.99
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- £5.99
Publisher Description
THE TOP TEN SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING NOVEL
LONGLISTED FOR THE DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE 2024
Dancing is the one thing that can solve Stephen's problems.
At Church with his family, the shimmer of Black hands raised in praise. With his band, making music speaking not just to their hardships, but their joys. Grooving with his best friend, so close their heads might touch. Dancing alone to his father's records, uncovering parts of a man he has never truly known. His youth, shame and sacrifice.
Stephen has only ever known himself in song. But what becomes of him when the music fades?
Set over the course of three summers, from South London to Ghana and back again, SMALL WORLDS is a novel about the worlds we build for ourselves. The worlds we live, dance and love within.
*****
'Caleb Azumah Nelson's stunning second novel confirms his status as a literary star' Observer
'Beautiful, unforgettable and all-consuming' Candice Carty-Williams, author of Queenie
'SMALL WORLDS is a book for everyone . . . an uplifting symphony of a summer read' Times
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Small Worlds, the second novel from Caleb Azumah Nelson, is equally as lyrical and poignant as his Costa Prize-winning debut—but those who struggled with Open Water’s second-person perspective may find this first-person narrative a much more readable offering. Nelson returns to South London for three consecutive summers in this emotive exploration of the shaky, uncertain period between adolescence and adulthood, dropping in on Stephen just before prom night in 2010. He is hanging his future hopes on a girl—Adeline, his best friend—jazz, and the music school experience that will mean their burgeoning romance need not be tested by distance and separation. True love’s course is rarely that simple, however, and Stephen’s struggle to carve out a new path when the one he intended to tread comes to an abrupt dead end makes for tender, empathetic reading. His relationship with his father—a first-generation immigrant from Ghana—is key to the conflict Stephen endures as he grows from boy to man, and Nelson renders the cultural gulf between the parents who denied themselves a carefree young adulthood of their own in order to work hard and secure their futures, and the children who know nothing of these experiences, in typically elegant fashion. Even with a backdrop of creeping gentrification, systemic racism and bereavement, Small Worlds is lighter fare than its predecessor and its refreshing to spend time with characters who have not yet seen enough of the world to be hardened and jaded by it just yet. Beautifully, masterfully written.
Customer Reviews
A beautiful journey
Caleb is a wonderful storyteller. Sometimes it seemed like I was reading through pages of a wonderful written poem.
Small World takes us on a journey of love, loss, family, community, racism, tears, grief, movement, migration, identity, faith, vulnerability & laughter.
Oh, not to forget the music! So many feelings.