"I'm trying to tell you what it means to be in the eye of a moshpit: a small, beautiful world in the midst of chaos, free, amongst flailing limbs and half shouted lyrics"

When I read Open Water last year, I was blown away. So when Small World's was announced I was, of course, very excited but didn't think I would love it as much as Open Water. Well, guess what reader? I was wrong - I somehow loved this even more!

I am in awe of Caleb Azumah Nelson's writing. He approaches characters, stories, and themes with such lyrical beauty that is absorbing yet so easy to read. The characters and stories bloom so naturally, it feels like you genuinely get to know them. At times I forgot I was reading a work of fiction. 

Small Worlds is set over the course of three summers. Stephen is navigating the vast worlds of love, loss, family, and self and the small worlds we build for ourselves, how we create space to live, love, and be free.

He struggles with loss throughout, through death of a loved one but also how we lose ourselves, the people we thought we would be, and the loss felt in the gaps that grow in our relationships.

Stephen finds solace, joy, and hope in music and dancing. This in particular really resonated with me. Music was always my place of comfort when I was a teenager, going to a gig and being surrounded by people singing along, dancing - my own small world where I felt safe and at home.

Caleb approaches difficult, sensitive topics with such care and passion. Showing how communities and families can fracture but find strength in love and the small worlds, and space they create to live in those worlds, with the things that bring them together at the centre, the things that feel like home, especially when home is so far away.

Small Worlds was an incredibly moving, beautiful novel, one I’ll revisit again and again. I can't wait see it brought to life on the screen, and I live in anticipation of Caleb Azumah Nelson's next offering!

Thank you to NetGalley and Viking for the eARC, I can't wait to get my hands on the physical copy (published 11 May)