Open Water
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Open Water
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Narrated by:
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Caleb Azumah Nelson
About this listen
Brought to you by Penguin.
Winner of the Costa First Novel Award 2021
Winner of Debut of the Year at the British Book Awards 2022
Winner of Bad Form Book of the Year Award.
Number one best seller in The Times.
Shortlisted for Waterstones Book of the Year.
Longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize and the Gordon Burn Prize 2021.
A National Book Award '5 Under 35' Honoree.
Two young people meet at a pub in South East London. Both are Black British, both won scholarships to private schools where they struggled to belong, both are now artists—he a photographer, she a dancer—trying to make their mark in a city that by turns celebrates and rejects them. Tentatively, tenderly, they fall in love. But two people who seem destined to be together can still be torn apart by fear and violence.
At once an achingly beautiful love story and a potent insight into race and masculinity, Open Water asks what it means to be a person in a world that sees you only as a Black body, to be vulnerable when you are respected only for strength, to find safety in love, only to lose it. With gorgeous, soulful intensity, Caleb Azumah Nelson has written the most essential debut of recent years.
©2020 Caleb Azumah Nelson (P)2020 Penguin AudioCritic Reviews
"A tender and touching love story, beautifully told." (Observer 10 Best Debut Novelists of 2021)
"Hands-down the best debut I've read in years." (The Times)
"A beautiful and powerful novel about the true and sometimes painful depths of love." (Candice Carty-Williams, best-selling author of Queenie)
"An unforgettable debut...it's Sally Rooney meets Michaela Coel meets Teju Cole." (New York Times)
"A love song to Black art and thought." (Yaa Gyasi, best-selling author of Homegoing and Transcendent Kingdom)
What listeners say about Open Water
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Anne
- 15-05-2023
I'm sure the novel is brilliant
I mean, the author is narrating; he can do what he wants right? But there is lightness and buoyancy and different pacing in the writing. The narration is dour and only dour. I've had to give up and will try the book.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 27-12-2023
Brilliant
Can't get over the vulnerability in this book. I listened twice consecutively. Loved it, it made me blush, it broke my heart
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- singapore girl
- 30-05-2021
wonderful
just,adored it, the story, the nuances, the riffs, the references , the postcodes!
eloquently written, seductively read.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Matt E
- 20-03-2024
Don’t get the love
I found theI found the story quite boring and the narration even more so. The romance I could relate to, but it was all a bit whiny and annoying.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- P C
- 29-01-2022
This was so beautiful, I had to write my first review.
Beautiful writing, beautiful narration. Not only is it the first time I’m writing a review, but it’s also the first time I have finished an audiobook in one sitting. I was swept away by Caleb Azumah Nelson’s words, and his excellent delivery of them. This book touched my soul, I highly recommend you listen to it, read it, just get it. Just, wow.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Tiffany
- 25-07-2022
Not for me
Found it boring. Maybe because it's not relatable for me and I needed a story with climax and proper ending. The book was written in second person and I found it irritating. The narrator voice was slow, depressing and I really tried, but couldn't follow through with the book. Literally fell asleep several times
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Daniel
- 08-07-2024
Terrible reading
The reading is terrible. The particular English accent was difficult to understand sometimes and the monotone voice was excruciating. I got no feeling or ambience from any of it. instruggled through six chapters and just had to give up.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Demi K.
- 09-10-2024
Couldn't finish it
Monotone narration, made it difficult to follow the story line. Overdid it with the descriptions.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 31-10-2023
Tried
Really tried to like this book but just couldn’t connect with it. The short length of the book meant I listened to it a second time but it didn’t change for me. The over descriptive paragraphs and the 2nd person view point really irritated me as the story went on.
It is nice to see an author narrate their own work but unfortunately it was just very monotonous and couldn’t give his characters their own voice. Even during dialogue, I got lost as it sounded like one person talking to themselves.
There’s more but I will leave it there.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 07-03-2023
Couldn’t get in to it.
Boring narration. Didn’t like the perspective. Only listens to the end of chapter 2. Disappointed.
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