Summary and Reviews of Small Worlds by Caleb Nelson

Media Reviews

Esquire There's something wide-eyed and lovely about the way Caleb Azumah Nelson writes about what it is to be young and alive to the world…This novel is about the dynamic between a father and son over three summers in London and Ghana, but it is also about music, and dancing, and those pleasures in life that are simple and yet also everything.

Literary Hub A story about an artist feeling the opposite pulls of family and his true passion, and how splintering those demands can be. A chance to get lost in Caleb Azumah Nelson's sonorous prose again? Music to our ears.

The Telegraph (UK) What makes Azumah Nelson so seductive is the way he nails how it feels to be young, in love, in London in the summer, with possibility stretching out ahead. His territory is the after-hours funk clubs of Deptford and Peckham frequented by black people in search of music and kinship; the Caribbean cafés that stay open into the small hours; the journeys back home on the night bus. Thanks to his supple, lambent prose, it's a landscape that dazzles.

The Times (UK) Azumah Nelson's characters are intelligent, and his poetic, elastic, bright prose has an uplifting energy, even when he's writing about the pain of loneliness...Azumah Nelson is something new: an unashamedly clever, spiritual, angry, loving voice in fiction, just when we need it most. Small Worlds is a book for everyone…. No one could fail to feel the message, of always striving for emotional honesty and hope, that is at the heart of this uplifting symphony of a summer read.

Library Journal (starred review) The musicality of Nelson's language underscores this vibrant and deeply moving tale of love, family, and coming of age. While stories of conflict between first-and second-generation immigrants are common, the cultural richness and specificity of Nelson's narrative rises above tropes and stereotypes.

Publishers Weekly (starred review) Astonishing…Nelson's assured writing captures the pulse of a dance party, the heat of a family's bond, and the depth of spiritual fervor to conjure a story as infectious as a new favorite song.

Reader Reviews

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