Open Water - Caleb Azumah Nelson: Winner of the Costa First Novel Award 2021

Product Description

WINNER OF THE COSTA FIRST NOVEL AWARD
A NATIONAL BOOK FOUNDATION 5 UNDER 35
WINNER OF THE BRITISH BOOK AWARD FOR DEBUT FICTION

*Goodreads Choice Award - Nominee for Readers' Favorite Debut Novel (2021)*

“Open Water is tender poetry, a love song to Black art and thought, an exploration of intimacy and vulnerability between two young artists learning to be soft with each other in a world that hardens against Black people.”—Yaa Gyasi, author of Homegoing.

In a crowded London pub, two young people meet. Both are Black British, both won scholarships to private schools where they struggled to belong, both are now artists—he a photographer, she a dancer—and both are trying to make their mark in a world that by turns celebrates and rejects them. Tentatively, tenderly, they fall in love. But two people who seem destined to be together can still be torn apart by fear and violence, and over the course of a year they find their relationship tested by forces beyond their control.

Narrated with deep intimacy, Open Water is at once an achingly beautiful love story and a potent insight into race and masculinity that asks what it means to be a person in a world that sees you only as a Black body; to be vulnerable when you are only respected for strength; to find safety in love, only to lose it. With gorgeous, soulful intensity, and blistering emotional intelligence, Caleb Azumah Nelson gives a profoundly sensitive portrait of romantic love in all its feverish waves and comforting beauty.

This is one of the most essential debut novels of recent years, heralding the arrival of a stellar and prodigious young talent.

Reviews:

Named a Best Book of the Year by TIME, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Library Journal, Literary Hub, Millions, New Statesman (UK), Guardian (UK), and Harper’s Bazaar Australia

One of Vulture’s “46 Books We Can’t Wait to Read in 2021”
One of Paperback Paris' "100 Most Anticipated New Books of 2021"
One of Guardian (UK)’s “Books to Look Forward to this Year”
One of Esquire (UK)’s “21 Books You Should Be Reading in 2021”
One of Cosmopolitan (UK)’s “69 new books by Black and POC authors out in 2021”
One of Elle (UK)’s “2021 Reading List”
One of Vogue (UK)’s “2021’s most dazzling Debut Novels”
One of Frieze’s “What to Look Forward to in 2021”
One of Stylist (UK)’s “48 Unmissable Books New Books to Read This Year”
One of Evening Standard (UK)’s “Best New Books in 2021”
One of The Metro (UK)’s “10 Gripping Books to Look out for this Year”
One of the New Stateman’s “Most Anticipated Fiction of 2021”

One of the Goodreads Readers’ Picks for Top Fiction from the Past Decade