The author of one of 2021’s most anticipated novels, Open Water, on the multi-faceted genius of Zadie Smith, the magic of a good meal, and how books can evoke music.
The author of one of 2021’s most anticipated novels, Open Water, on the multi-faceted genius of Zadie Smith, the magic of a good meal, and how books can evoke music.
If you read any of the dozens of lists of novels to look out for in 2021 that populated the internet late last year, you likely already know about Caleb Azumah Nelson’s Open Water. And now that Nelson’s first novel has arrived, it’s more than justifying the buzz.
An elegantly told love story, written from a second-person perspective, Open Water explores race, masculinity, and the power (and terror) of connecting with another human being. It’s also a rich rumination on Black creativity which has earned praise from fellow authors such as Candice Carty-Williams, Yaa Gyasi and Diana Evans. Vogue referred to Nelson “an exhilarating new voice in British fiction”.
To celebrate Open Water’s release, we asked Nelson to answer our 21 questions; here, he reveals his love of Toni Morrison and Zora Neale Hurston, the culinary career that could’ve been, and the depth of his admiration for Zadie Smith’s NW, a book that has shaped Nelson’s life in more than a few ways.
Toni Morrison, for her pacing, her rhythm, her wisdom.
Noughts & Crosses by Malorie Blackman. I told everyone who would listen to read that book, friends and teachers alike. I felt fortunate to have this book, written by a local author of such magnitude.
I read Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God and that was a significant, transformative experience. Hurston does something with language which even I could really admire and appreciate. What a voice!
NW by Zadie Smith. It was unlike any novel I had read at the time, and emboldened me to tell my own story, about my slice of London.
Working hospitality for a temp agency – we’d be shipped out to various parts of the country to work parties and weddings. I worked a big company party with 1200 employees in the middle of nowhere.
‘Writing is fictionalising memory.’ My work isn’t often autobiographical, but it’s always personal. I’m always trying to delve into feelings I have known.
NW by Zadie Smith. I think because of its experimental nature, I find something different emerging every time I read it. Also, the dialogue is excellent and really affords the characters a fullness which isn’t always seen.
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. It’s been sat in my TBR pile for years at this point.
A chef maybe? I really enjoy cooking and preparing meals for others, there’s a real pleasure
When I’m with my family and those I love. Oh, and food! A good meal will light up my eyes.
I recently bought a saxophone – I’ve always wanted to learn a brass instrument and have been teaching myself slowly!
Headphones on, a good playlist playing (I always prepare a playlist before starting a new piece of writing). I like to get out of the house when I can to write and appreciate having a regular space to go – usually libraries.
I met Malorie Blackman when I was 10 or 11, and was suitably starstruck. It took me a while to get the words out when she was asking my name to sign my book!
Yaa Gyasi, a fellow Ghanaian. I feel like she’d appreciate a good home-cooked meal, so perhaps some jollof rice.
I’ve always had a really good memory, so perhaps that I might begin to forget.
FLIGHT!
Nadia Owusu’s Aftershocks. An incredible meditation on identity, as well as an exploration of the rich histories which make us who we are. It also has an astounding rhythm propelling the narrative – it reads like music.
Absolutely!
Coffee.
Such a hard question! I have to say NW by Zadie Smith again. No book has changed my view more on what fiction could be. It informs how I write today and I hold it very dear.
Open Water is a love story but it’s also an ode to everything I love: South East London and books, music and photography, film and fine art. I wanted to write a book which read like an album, like music, so musicians such as Kendrick Lamar and Solange and J Dilla were instrumental to the conception of the book. Photography too – I often feel like when I’m writing, I’m transcribing snapshots of moments I can see.
Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson is out now..