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Open Water
Paperback
General FictionLiterary Fiction
Publisher Price: $17.00
ISBN13: 9780802157942
Publisher: Grove Press, Black Cat
Published: Apr 13 2021
Pages: 176
Weight: 0.45
Height: 0.70 Width: 5.50 Depth: 8.20
Language: English
A beautiful book in every sense of the word. The stunning and poetic prose perfectly depicts the life of a modern romance between two black britons. Grappling with themes of self, identity, race, love, and masculinity, this book deftly weaves sweeping social commentary with nuanced, intimate romance. Lastly, for anyone looking to read something a tad unique, the entirety of the book is written in the self-referential second person making for a totally unique reading experience. -Kenny
WINNER OF THE COSTA FIRST NOVEL AWARD
A NATIONAL BOOK FOUNDATION 5 UNDER 35
WINNER OF THE BRITISH BOOK AWARD FOR DEBUT FICTION
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.
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