Category: Book Reviews

  • Between a Rock and a Hard Place: A Review

    Between a Rock and a Hard Place: A Review

    As the daughter of a keen mountaineer I have always been aware of the dangers one faces when heading into the great outdoors. My dad, like any responsible outdoorsman, impressed on me the importance of being prepared for anything. In Aotearoa NZ this “everything” typically meant unpredictable weather conditions. We were taught to always taught…

  • Small Worlds: An endeavour for identity and belonging

    Small Worlds: An endeavour for identity and belonging

    Following the success of his debut novel Open Water, it comes as no surprise that Caleb Azumah Nelson’s second novel is just as stunning. Once again, he delivers a heartfelt, moving story through poetic prose. The story follows Stephen over a short but crucial period of his life in London as the son of Ghanaian-born…

  • Open Water: A deep-dive into love, masculinity and black-ness

    Open Water: A deep-dive into love, masculinity and black-ness

    To make a long story short, Caleb Azumah Nelson’s debut novel is a triumph. Open Water is a novel, set in London, that follows the lives of a black man and a black woman as they intermingle. While initially it may sound simple, such a story brings about so many questions just in its existence.…

  • Nelson and ‘The Argonauts’

    Nelson and ‘The Argonauts’

    This book was recommended to me by a friend who is known to take their sweet time when reading, so I was expecting to be able to get through it fairly quickly considering it’s 178 pages long. Now, while it didn’t take me months to get through, it was a bit of a slower read.…