Author(s): Caleb Azumah Nelson

Fiction | Staff Picks

An exhilarating and expansive new novel about fathers and sons, faith and friendship from Caleb Azumah Nelson, the no.1 bestselling, award-winning author of Open Water 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.

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Reviewed by Fantine:

We follow Stephen over various summers, from London to Accra, as he grapples with his place in the communities and roles he inhabits. Lyrical prose reflects his love of jazz as we weave and dip through memory and place in a delightfully organic way. He experiences love and loss, navigates the tumultuous waters of familial relationships and grapples with the expectations placed upon black men. Moving and poetic, Azumah Nelson has a way of invigorating the mundane and making the unique identifiable. I would read his grocery list.