I am still feeling a little emotional after reading Small Worlds and for good reason. It is a beautiful, lyrical, intensely written book about love, grief, finding your way and surviving in a world that wants to grind you down to dust.

I am not an immigrant. I was born in the United States, which is its own harrowing story. But I love reading books, fiction or nonfiction, about the immigrant experience. How people from other countries leave the worlds they know to move to an entirely different country. The realizations, disappointments and hardships they endure, the victories they achieve and the lives they create through it all. Small Worlds is no different. The book is about Stephen, a young man living in Peckham on the cusp of adulthood. It is the summer before he leaves for university, and Stephen has big dreams. But as we all know, dreams can be dashed instantly or achieved by hard work, privilege or just plain luck. And depending on what Life has in store for you, working on those dreams can either make or break you.

Caleb Azumah Nelson is an amazing writer, full stop. He writes with such emotion that I felt my heart opening up more and more as I read. I bookmarked so many pages on my Kindle to the point I had to stop in order to keep reading. What I loved is how the author let Stephen show his emotions. Stephen cries, loves, laughs and feels pain. He may not always do it in front of someone else, but we as readers get to be there with him. It is refreshing to read, to experience this young Black man be a whole person and not a stereotype of what the world thinks he’s supposed to be.

Although this book does deal with grief in the general sense of losing a loved one, it’s also about the grief of losing time. When we’re young, time seems to be moving so slowly. We want to become adults, do everything and do it as quickly as possible. But as we get older, time begins to move too quickly, to the point we feel like we’ll never achieve or do everything we want before the end. Living in a capitalist society only exacerbates that feeling, making us feel worthless if we don’t have a particular level of status by a certain age. As the child of immigrants, that pressure is worse for Stephen because his father reminds him of the sacrifices made in order to create a better life. I know so many children of immigrants who felt obligated to become lawyers to make their parents happy, to live the lives their parents wanted for them even though they had no interest in law.

I am so thankful I received an ARC of this book because it is such a beautifully written story. Caleb Azumah Nelson has definitely become an author whose work I will be looking forward to from now on. I plan to read his first book, Open Water, which I’ve heard nothing but great things. Small Worlds is one of the best books I’ve read this year and I highly recommend it.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an advance copy.

Where to buy: The Lit. Bar Loyalty Bookstores Amazon