Small Worlds

If you haven't had a chance to read Caleb Azumah Nelson's debut, Open Water, about a gorgeous love affair in modern-day London, then please do; it'll keep you occupied until his new release is out on 11 May, which is about fathers and sons, the power of dance and how one man can create a life he loves

Stylist, Big Fiction for 2023

Small Worlds grabs you by the heart and holds tightly, revealing a story as beautiful and as lyrical as the words that adorn the pages.

Sofia Akel

Caleb Azumah Nelson's writing is touching, heartfelt, and musically rich

Diana Evans

Caleb Azumah Nelson's Open Water was a slim masterpiece. His second novel, Small Worlds is a similarly lapidary coming-of-age story set over three years in the life of an extraordinary young man.

Observer

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

A gentle reflection on self-discovery

Vogue, 2023 Spring Highlights

In his beautiful new novel Nelson summons the sounds of Black Youth, love and discovery to the page. A celebration of the heart

Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, author of CHAIN-GANG ALL-STARS and FRIDAY BLACK

Caleb Azumah Nelson's writing captures nostalgia-that most essential of sentiments-like no other. I was immersed, transported, and at the same time affirmed in the familiar. Gorgeous

Sareeta Domingo, author of IF I DON'T HAVE YOU

A wonderful, dexterous work. Caleb Azumah Nelson explores modes of blackness in ways that are enriching and invigorating

IRENOSEN OKOJIE

Both intimate and inviting, Azumah Nelson weaves not just worlds but exquisite universes with his words. SMALL WORLDS is a masterful exploration of love, masculinity, coming of age and community, and Azumah Nelson's dextrous, sublime pen brings it into dazzling life.

Bolu Babalola, author of LOVE IN COLOUR

A mesmerising Peckham love story

i

Nelson writes about closeness, with family, with lovers, with art, as careful, essential labour

Raven Leilani, author of Luster

An affecting meditation on the migrant experience

Guardian

A book which is alert and enlivening, at once serious and a pleasure to read

Literary Review

Small Worlds is a Vermeer universe of a novel, of warmth, deep feeling, aching and gorgeousness. To read is to be hugged by a rich brown oak, ever stretching out. It is as charged as it is earthed. It is wonderful.

Inua Ellams

Small Worlds is an emotionally astute novel that cements this 29-year-old south London author as one of the UK's best.

New Statesman

It's a story about finding both one's identity and one's place in the world.

Art Review

moving, intimate, and sizzling hot

Sunday Times

Steeped in nostalgia, grief and heartbreak, yet somehow still hopeful, this is one of the best books I've read all year.

City AM

This story about rebuilding small worlds - places in which to feel beautiful and free - is itself a thing of beauty

Prospect