Small Worlds

SMALL WORLDS by Caleb Azumah Nelson centers around a Ghanian-British family living in the Peckham neighborhood of London. Stephen, the narrator, is a young adult who is finding his way in a larger world that doesn’t always want him. With lyrical, rhythmic prose, Nelson shows how Stephen and his crew –his brother Ray, his maybe-girlfriend Adeline, and their friends – create “small worlds” where they experience love, joy, safety, and community. This isn’t a vibes-only book, but those who I think will enjoy it most are readers who appreciate Nelson’s writing style, which is poetic and full of repeating motifs as well as recurring refrains, like a song itself. The motifs include the beauty of sunlight on Black skin, food as connection and nourishment, dancing as self-expression, and making music as self-actualization, while the refrains include phrases that are echoed throughout the novel, their meaning slightly different each time. It’s lovely and earnest, and the cadence of the prose works well in an audiobook format (which Nelson reads himself, beautifully). While I’d classify this as New Adult in terms of subject matter (high school graduation, starting university, finding a job, first romance, immigrant generational divides), Nelson pairs an intriguing combination of self-aware, raw, and honest first-person narration with a lack of communication among characters. Yet because Stephen is personally introspective, it remains an emotion-forward book even as the characters take longer to sort out their conflicts. SMALL WORLDS is an ode to family and community, to enduring friendships and to the bridging of borders. It’s about connecting with our roots even when they’ve been severed, about how we heal from fractures, and creating community as Other. The gentle rhythms and refrains of this book will stay with me for a long time. Thank you to Audiobooks.com for the gifted audiobook!