Open sea

Costa Prize 2021

Two young people meet in a bustling London pub. Both are Black, British, both went on scholarships to private schools where they didn't fit in, both are now artists – he a photographer, she a dancer – both trying to make their mark in a city that sometimes honors them and sometimes rejects them. Reluctantly, tenderly, they fall in love. But two people, even if they seem destined to be together, can be separated by fear and violence.

A painfully beautiful love story but also a powerful look at race and masculinity. Written with tenderness and intimacy, it makes us wonder what it means to be human in a world that sees you only as a black body, to be vulnerable when you are respected only for your strength, to find security in love, only to lose it. With wonderful expressive intensity, Caleb Azumah Nelson in this first novel delivers a heartbreaking portrait of love with all its feverish waves and comforting beauty.

THE PRESS WROTE
Lyrical… this emotionally rich first novel narrates the birth of a love against the backdrop of black culture, joy and pain… Open Water lives in the here and now.
Entertainment Weekly

A flawless love story like no other has been written... essential and beautiful.
The Face

A masterful novel, full of tension.
Guardian

A captivating love story, written in lyrical and propulsive prose.
Kirkus Reviews

A masterpiece. It uniquely depicts the intimacy and closeness between two people. A book about black bodies and power, fragility and fear. Full of music and sounds, it captivates the reader.
Evening Standard

Only great artists can make novels out of water. Family, grief, black identity, Frank Ocean, hip-hop, dance, adulthood, separation, London, oppression. For Caleb Azumah Nelson, everything is water… In this unforgettable debut all currents connect… Azumah Nelson’s poetic brilliance, his ability to balance the general and the specific, the atmospheric and the hazy, is a remarkable achievement.
New York Times