Open Water

Content Warning: This section of the guides discusses systemic racism and police violence.

Caleb Azumah Nelson is a British Ghanian author born in the early 1990s. Open Water, his debut novel, catapulted him to international prominence. Though Open Water is not described as an autobiographical text, the book has its roots in a series of essays that Azumah Nelson wrote prior to the summer of 2019, and the narrator of the novel reflects much of Azumah Nelson’s own background.

Like his protagonist, Azumah Nelson was raised and still resides in Bellingham, an area in south-east London. As did both central characters in the novel, he received a full scholarship to an elite and traditional private school, Alleyn’s School. Before publishing Open Water, Azumah Nelson worked at an Apple store, paralleling his unnamed narrator’s day job at Niketown in downtown London. In addition to being a writer, Azumah Nelson is a photographer whose work has been honored with the Palm* Photo People’s Choice prize. Open Water’s unnamed narrator is also a photographer who writes, specifically personal essays to complement his photography. The narrator discusses the act of writing the text of Open Water, creating a metatextual framing for the novel.