Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson

I was lucky to receive a proof of Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson, who was also shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award 2020 this month, from Viking Books.

This novella is a tale of love earned and lost. A young black British photographer meets his mate’s girlfriend, a dancer, in a South East London pub and instantly falls in love with her. As well as both being artists they share a lived experience - as children they had both received scholarships to private schools where they were both one of only a few black students, and this shared life experience helps them to bond.

Written in the second person, addressing the male main character ( I can’t remember actually reading either of their names in the book!) Open Water traces the journey of their love against the backdrop of escalating discrimination and violence by the police and authorities against black people.

It was wonderful reading about love from the male POV and what can I say about Caleb’s writing? It’s an utter piece of art, so perfectly crafted, you wonder whether deep thought has gone into the choice of each word or whether it just comes naturally to him like a musician composing a piece of music. Caleb allows you to witness the main male character’s vulnerability and my heart was being tugged at in every page. It’s a tale about love that is so raw.

As we currently live through the Black Lives Matter movement this book is very relevant for the current times. Through the use of written emotion for a split second as a reader you get a taste of what life is like for this young black man in London, treating every day as if it may be the day when he doesn’t return home. Caleb repeatedly refers to what it is like to be looked at as a black person but not actually “seen.”

Open Water comes out on February 4th 2021 and is published by Viking Books.