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Open Water
- Narrated by: Caleb Azumah Nelson
- Length: 4 hrs and 41 mins
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Interview: Inspired by Hip-Hop, ‘Open Water’ Introduces a Stunning New Voice on Vulnerability
Publisher's Summary
A stunning, shattering debut novel about two Black artists falling in and out of love.
Two young people meet at a pub in South East 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 respected only for strength, to find safety in love, only to lose it. With gorgeous, soulful intensity, Caleb Azumah Nelson has written the most essential debut of recent years.

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What listeners say about Open Water
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Elizabeth Booth
- 05-08-21
Couldn’t listen to the voice
The inexpressive monotone of the reader made this book unlistenable. Tried several times. Didn’t get past chapter two.
3 people found this helpful
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- Donna D. Lewis
- 02-02-22
Very well written but boring.
The characters were not likeable. They did not make me care about them. The author read in a monotone. I hate books read by the author. I wish they would leave it to professional actors.
1 person found this helpful
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- Storytellersrus
- 09-25-21
Second person POV releases poignant perspective
Let me begin by saying I plan to reread this book, whether or not my white Wake Up book club chooses to accept my recommendation to discuss it over the next six weeks or to move in another direction. It is that valuable a revelation.
I was caught up with where Mr. Nelson might take me as reader, first round. I just finished a study on the Central Park Five. Would this describe a similar outcome, ie, the injustice of British or Dublin police? The horrific loss of another young and talented black man?
Without offering spoilers, I will share that what I read here was gut-wrenching due to its normalization of the world inhabited by a black, London photographer. His day to day expectation of confrontation and violence. This was disconcerting. I appreciated finally recognizing it.
I am reading next for poetics and articulate viscerality. I know the plot and how it ends. I remember emotional moments. I want to understand better what it feels like to be a black male in a world where systemic racism exists but so does love.
Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes were Watching God impacted me in similar fashion. I have read it four times and will turn to it again, soon. In these stories, racism is part of existence but not all. These novels do not cater to white systems, they celebrate the human condition as experienced by courageous, inspiring people who are not white.
1 person found this helpful
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- Shuteye
- 05-31-21
A Stunning Piece of Work
I admit I haven't read a lot of love stories, but this is by far the best love story I've read in years. It's a beautiful, poetic, and meditative depiction of love, intimacy and vulnerability in black life. It's a quiet novel, but deeply engrossing. I've avoided any plot summaries because I don't want to give away spoilers, but it's a book to be admired for its writing and characterization. Caleb Azumah Nelson is definitely a writer to watch. Read it. Or listen to it. It's well worth your time.
1 person found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 03-27-22
I am conflited
the writing style is not for me. you get only one point of view. would love to see what the other characters are up to. overall I like the portrait of how racial Préjudice and racial profiling can affect people and relationships.
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- Yolgens Laica
- 02-23-22
Lovely storyline!
This was my first time reading Caleb’s work, and I can say I definitely appreciate the uniqueness and how he narrated the story in second person. It also shows how even when it seems like two people belong together they can still be torn apart by racism, fear, and prejudice.
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- lenae
- 05-30-21
Black Love
Really good story about Black love ands somewhat unconventional way of Blackness. Voice is very monotone and calming.