Open Water
Open Water is the debut novel by British-Ghanian writer and photographer Caleb Azumah Nelson. It was published by Penguin Random House UK in 2021 and won the Costa Book Award.
A man and a woman meet for the first time in a pub in South-East London. We don’t get to know their names. Both are Black, attended a private school thanks to a scholarship, but they never quite belonged. Both of them work in the art scene – she is a dancer, he is a photographer. The pull towards each other is powerful, but concern for the friendship that binds them together causes their love to develop hesitantly. Nevertheless, this young love, so tender, seems at first glance so pure and invulnerable.
But how can you love someone in a society that constantly questions your belonging? In a society in which you cannot escape the influence of racism, police violence and toxic masculinity. What happens when trauma slowly seeps into your everyday life together? What happens when the fear of showing and feeling yourself overshadows everything? What happens when the expectation to be a certain way collides with a person who can see through these expectations?
Their story is told in the second person singular from the perspective of the male protagonist. What I initially found disconcerting helps – not least because of Caleb Azumah Nelson’s powerful and poetic language – to get close to the main character despite a certain anonymity. To feel with him. Sometimes almost to feel for him.
It is probably the most touching and authentic love story I have read in a long time. The glimpse into the Black British art and culture scene is also deeply affecting. From literature to visual art and music, the protagonist immerses us in a world in which art is so much more than a consumable object. It is formative in shaping his identity and shows the necessity of art, which has the power to create a sense of belonging when the feeling of being lost is overwhelming.