Caleb Azumah Nelson’s debut novel ‘Open Water’ making waves in the world
Since the publication of 27-year-old Caleb Azumah Nelson’s debut novel in February this year, it has seen success after success.
As the writer and photographer modestly puts it, it has been ‘a bit of a ride’.
The manuscript for Open Water made waves in the industry and was part of a nine-way auction, before being sold to the editor Isabel Wall at Viking.
After its publication earlier this year, the book received a slew of critical success – most recently being shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award.
Mr Azumah Nelson, who grew up in Bellingham and now lives in Gipsy Hill, said: “It’s been really wonderful and I’ve been trying to take moments to pause and be reflective and quite grateful for it.
“It’s changed my life in a lot of really wonderful ways.”
The book follows the relationship between a man and a woman who meet in a pub in South East London.
As well as an examination of the ebbs and flows of the relationship, the book explores both the joy that can be found in black culture and the fear that comes from being viewed as a black body.
Mr Azumah Nelson said: “I think a lot of that came from my work as a photographer.
“A lot of my work is portraiture. It started off as my family and expanded into friends and then people in my wider sphere – but usually black people.
“I try to render them in a way that sees everything that they want to be rather than attaching the prescribed definition or meaning to their lives.
“I’ll provide space for people to be their full and whole selves and I think that that was what I was trying to do with the work – trying to make space for these characters, to be beautiful but also messy and everything in between.”
His work as a photographer also influenced his writing style.
He said: “I think before writing this book I would have held the two practices at opposite ends but writing this gave me the courage to combine the two.
“It gave a more visual element to my writing and a more cinematic texture.”
The intimate, close-up style of the writing makes it all the more unsettling when the ever-present threat of violence bursts into the story.
In one scene, the protagonist is getting his hair cut when the barbershop window is shattered by a man running for his life.
Mr Azumah Nelson said: “I wanted to play with this tension where black people are making space for themselves to be free and feel this sense of freedom and openness – and I wanted to interrupt it.
“This is an everyday thing that this freedom that we seek might be interrupted by anything at any time.”
Pictured: Caleb Azumah Nelson. Credit: Stuart Ruel
