SMALL WORLDS
BY CALEB AZUMAH NELSON
Small worlds is an embrace, a dance through which you’ll find yourself going from one foot to another, smoothly, thanks to the rhythm of the writer, Caleb Azumah Nelson, throughout his second novel, released earlier this year.
Small worlds is about the space between people and the way it brings them together, when time and ego allow it. It’s about the small and hurting gap between loneliness and solitude, and how to gravitate around it, and through it. As we follow the main character, with whom you might often identify with, he will have to make his path through loss in many different ways, but also he will learn how to get to love all over again
This book is about the grief of a loved one who you spent your entire life with, about what you bring in your suitcases from Ghana to set foot in a country that doesn’t want you here when all you want is to share what the author will name your “rhythm” throughout the book.
It’s about what you can take and what you want to be able to bring, the parts of you that are left behind, loved ones you never will see again.
It’s about navigating through a life between two countries, the thirst for opportunities and the sacrifice of a part of yourself you might find back again years later, if you’re lucky. It’s also about the future you seek for your children, while pressuring them to have what you couldn’t, friends that became brothers and sisters when you didn’t have access to your family anymore.
You’ll also find your way navigating through the will and need to remember through food and music, the shops that bring memories you’re trying to hold close to your heart and the way it was back there and the music allowing you to forget sometimes.
I urge you to read this book especially if you come from an immigrant household. As for his first novel, the author didn’t miss to share his emotions in a very honest and complete way. It felt like reading a long poem full of melancholy and love, drifting away from the pages to our hearts, through the heartbreak you feel consuming you, to how, in the snap of two fingers, while living a glimpse of happiness, your life shifts as your friends call you to tell you how the police killed one of your brothers, and how after all, only community helps you go through this life without falling apart.
Hanna @dinerlivresque