Open Water
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Open Water
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Narrated by:
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Caleb Azumah Nelson
About this listen
Brought to you by Penguin.
Winner of the Costa First Novel Award 2021
Winner of Debut of the Year at the British Book Awards 2022
Winner of Bad Form Book of the Year Award.
Number one best seller in The Times.
Shortlisted for Waterstones Book of the Year.
Longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize and the Gordon Burn Prize 2021.
A National Book Award '5 Under 35' Honoree.
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.
©2020 Caleb Azumah Nelson (P)2020 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
Critic reviews
"A tender and touching love story, beautifully told." (Observer 10 Best Debut Novelists of 2021)
"Hands-down the best debut I've read in years." (The Times)
"A beautiful and powerful novel about the true and sometimes painful depths of love." (Candice Carty-Williams, best-selling author of Queenie)
"An unforgettable debut...it's Sally Rooney meets Michaela Coel meets Teju Cole." (New York Times)
"A love song to Black art and thought." (Yaa Gyasi, best-selling author of Homegoing and Transcendent Kingdom)
What listeners say about Open Water
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- A.Bastos
- 06-07-23
Phenomenal
I am swooned, I am moved, I am sad, I am happy, I am emotional, I basically felt everything listening to this book.
Open Water is written in a second person perspective and it's the story about two friends falling in love. I don't know the name of "You", but I don't need to. I still connected, empathised and rooted for him.
But, this isn't just a love story. This also focus on the struggles, the experience, grief and trauma of a young black man in British society.
Caleb talks about racism, discrimination, violence, trauma, grief, police violence...
It's about: "It's one thing being looked at and another to be seen".
The rhythm is just perfect! It's poetry, lyrical, it's art!
There are ao many good quotes, that I had to stop and go search for them. This will probably be the first book that I'll annotate, when I have the physical copy.
"“What you’re trying to say is that it’s easier for you to hide in your own darkness, than emerge cloaked in your own vulnerability. Not better, but easier. However the longer you hold it in, the more likely you are to suffocate. At some point, you must breathe.”
"You hide your whole self away because sometimes you forget you haven’t done anything wrong. Sometimes you forget there’s nothing in your pocket. Sometimes you forget that to be you is to be unseen and unheard, or it is to be seen and heard in ways you did not ask for. Sometimes you forget to be you is to be a Black body, and not much else."
I listened to the audiobook and just fell in love with Caleb's voice. I am pleased that I listened to the audio, I believe it was an overall better experience. Now...am I buying the physical copy? Absolutely!
Am I reading his other book? You can bet on it...I'll probably listen to the audio, as well.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- MsAsh, Chigwell
- 03-08-22
Deep
Loved the subtlety of the witer-narrator's tone. His reading did not stifle my imagination but enhanced it by not overacting. Beautifully paced reading of a gripping story that I wished would not end, but also needed it to so I could quietly contemplate its threads of blackness, love, loss and freedom. This book spoke.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Leila
- 21-04-22
Beautiful
Really beautiful, lyrical book. The author's voice is monotone which makes the descriptions more haunting.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 21-04-22
Amazing
This is the most beautifully written book I've read in a very long time. The rhythm and poetry of deeply insightful sentences like little gems.
This explored the affects of systemic racism on a human being's psychology and emotions and was deeply moving and utterly relatable.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Olulari
- 25-11-22
amazing Insight into the marginalized lives of
written so beautifully and eloquently. A fantastic and useful insight into how young black boys are marginalized by the policing system. How young black boys are over policed u fairly! I see you, I hear you. you belong! you are of great value to this world
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Miss CM
- 15-02-21
beautifully told
Lovely story and so easy to listen (pretty much got through it in a day).
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- lukeclark
- 17-04-21
Brilliant
Best thing I’ve heard in ages. Perfect poetics for our times. I’ll be re-reading! Thanks for the words – get writing, Mr Nelson, I'll be in the queue for your next one.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Witty
- 26-02-22
Good Story
A nice Poetic flow to the writing. A nice story. I enjoyed it very much
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Mbongeni Ndlovu
- 04-07-22
Very poetic but the ending seemed a rushed
Brilliant performance but the ending could have been better. Despite that, the authors way with words is phenomenal!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Madeleine Walsh
- 21-06-23
Beautiful Poetry
This was a very moving portrayal of love and an achingly in depth experience of being young and black today. It was an exquisite exploration of both the joy and pain within the world and how they can intermingle within the same moment.
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