I couldn’t get enough of Open Water, so I requested Caleb Azumah Nelson’s Small Worlds as soon as it crossed my radar. I knew I was going to fall in love with the writing style and language again, and the themes and characters are so rich and lush, there was no second thought on the matter. Now that it is in my hands, I can say clearly that it is a beautiful, sweeping jewel of a read, and you all need to pick this up.

The one thing that can solve Stephen’s problems is dancing. Dancing at Church, with his parents and brother, the shimmer of Black hands raised in praise; he might have lost his faith, but he does believe in rhythm. Dancing with his friends, somewhere in a basement with the drums about to drop, while the DJ spins garage cuts. Dancing with his band, making music which speaks not just to the hardships of their lives, but the joys too. Dancing with his best friend Adeline, two-stepping around the living room, crooning and grooving, so close their heads might touch. Dancing alone, at home, to his father’s records, uncovering parts of a man he has never truly known. Stephen has only ever known himself in song. But what becomes of him when the music fades? When his father begins to speak of shame and sacrifice, when his home is no longer his own? How will he find space for himself: a place where he can feel beautiful, a place he might feel free? Set over the course of three summers in Stephen’s life, from London to Ghana and back again, Small Worlds is an exhilarating and expansive novel about the worlds we build for ourselves, the worlds we live, dance and love within.

Art is such a strong part of Caleb’s writing. Not only does it breathe life into his words, but it gives them shape, purpose, support, and brilliance. There is not a sentence in his writing that falls flat, nor is there a paragraph that won’t take you on a soul journey, looping together character dialogue and likes with a poet’s tongue, speaking the words with such dazzling clarity they become more than the letters that make them what they are. There is something so stunning about his writing, and I genuinely struggle to put his work down. Pair that with characters who are so painfully human and so loudly flawed, beautiful, and changing, and a cultural landscape that is both nostalgic, homey, and titillating all your senses, and you have a story that sings off the pages.

But just as there is beauty and life, there is sharp pain and compelling emotion that will grip you, taking you along a path that diverges from the light happiness, dipping under the surface to journey into the dark depths that we don’t always want to see. This is where the heavier notes of the story reside, and they will hook into your heart and won’t let you finish the novel without you plucking them out one by one. Even at its darkest parts, Small Worlds is a gorgeous lyrical feat of literature. I could not pull my eyes away, and I certainly could not reach the end without shedding a few tears.

Small Worlds is powerful; it is a piece of writing I will not forget, nor will I stop raving about it. I love the musicality of it, the life and substance it contains, and the varying layers that make it both painful and enjoyable to read. Caleb Azumah Nelson is an incredible author; in fact, he is so much more, but I am at a loss as to the right word to bestow upon him. All I know is that I will continue to keep an eye on his activity so I can get the next book as soon as possible. He is something really special in the literary space, especially for Black authors, and I hope more people appreciate his brilliance.