Open Water
Two young people meet at a pub in Southeast London. 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 - trying to make their mark in a city 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.
At once an achingly beautiful love story and a potent insight into race and masculinity, Open Water 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, Caleb Azumah Nelson has written the most essential British debut of recent years.
Source: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/317654/open-water-by-nelson-caleb-azumah/9780241448786
Keywords/Themes
Love, grief, vulnerability, Black masculinity, identity, trauma, intimacy, creativity, art, visibility, fear, connection.
Recommended Grade Level: Grade 12
Book Review & Recommended Use in Classroom
Not only is the plot very simple, it is also given away from the very beginning. The short novel remains interesting because of how it is told: its lyrical language, its narrative perspective (“you” falls in love with a woman—never defined as male), its many Black cultural references (writers James Baldwin and Zadie Smith, musicians like Isaiah Rashad, the painter Lynette Yiadom-Boakye), and its gender and race awareness.
I would read this novel with a class because of its flow and its rhythm. I think it would have to be read along with the character’s playlist (which is accessible on Spotify), with an emphasis on its cultural references. I think it would be interesting to explore the main character’s gender, fragility, and Black masculinity. It immediately made me think of the film Moonlight, which could be watched alongside the novel. Reading this novel in class would require a teacher who does not feel embarrassed talking about the graphic depiction of the characters’ sexual encounters.
(Alexandra, April 2025)
Sensitive Content
Themes of systemic racism and police violence, implicit bias and discrimination, death, loss, grief and suicidal thoughts, mental health struggles tied to racial trauma, masculinity and gender.
About the Author
Caleb Azumah Nelson is a British Ghanaian writer and photographer born and raised in South East London, whose work explores themes of identity, intimacy, race, and artistic expression. Initially studying sports science, he turned to writing after an injury shifted his path, drawing on his lived experience and emotional insight to craft fiction rooted in contemporary Black British life. His acclaimed debut novel, Open Water (2021), written while working at an Apple Store, earned widespread praise for its lyrical style and vulnerability. Nelson’s creative vision continues to blend literature and visual storytelling.
