
Open Water
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Narrated by:
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Caleb Azumah Nelson
About this listen
A stunning, shattering debut novel about two Black artists falling in and out of love.
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.
©2021 Caleb Azumah Nelson. Recorded by arrangement with Black Cat, an imprint of Grove Atlantic, Inc. (P)2021 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Story
Two half sisters, Effia and Esi, unknown to each other, are born into different villages in 18th-century Ghana. Effia is married off to an Englishman and will live in comfort in the palatial rooms of Cape Coast Castle, raising children who will be sent abroad to be educated before returning to the Gold Coast to serve as administrators of the empire. Esi, imprisoned beneath Effia in the castle's women's dungeon and then shipped off on a boat bound for America, will be sold into slavery.
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A Novel in Stories
- By Daryl on 06-19-16
By: Yaa Gyasi
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The Great Believers
- By: Rebecca Makkai
- Narrated by: Michael Crouch
- Length: 18 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1985, Yale Tishman, the development director for an art gallery in Chicago, is about to pull off an amazing coup, bringing in an extraordinary collection of 1920s paintings as a gift to the gallery. Yet as his career begins to flourish, the carnage of the AIDS epidemic grows around him. One by one, his friends are dying and after his friend Nico's funeral, the virus circles closer and closer to Yale himself. Soon the only person he has left is Fiona, Nico's little sister.
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A story for all time
- By Carla jo Thompson on 08-06-18
By: Rebecca Makkai
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There There
- A Novel
- By: Tommy Orange
- Narrated by: Darrell Dennis, Shaun Taylor-Corbett, Alma Ceurvo, and others
- Length: 8 hrs
- Unabridged
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Jacquie Red Feather is newly sober and trying to make it back to the family she left behind in shame. Dene Oxendene is pulling his life back together after his uncle's death and has come to work at the powwow to honor his uncle's memory. Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield has come to watch her nephew Orvil, who has taught himself traditional Indian dance through YouTube videos and will perform in public for the very first time. There will be glorious communion and a spectacle of sacred tradition and pageantry. And there will be sacrifice, and heroism, and loss.
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Highly recommend.
- By Rachel S on 07-09-18
By: Tommy Orange
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Monstrilio
- By: Gerardo Sámano Córdova
- Narrated by: Victoria Villarreal, Johnny Rey Diaz
- Length: 7 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Grieving mother Magos cuts out a piece of her deceased eleven-year-old son Santiago's lung. Acting on fierce maternal instinct and the dubious logic of an old folktale, she nurtures the lung until it gains sentience, growing into the carnivorous little Monstrilio she keeps hidden within the walls of her family's decaying Mexico City estate. Eventually, Monstrilio begins to resemble the Santiago he once was, but his innate impulses—though curbed by his biological and chosen family's communal care—threaten to destroy this fragile second chance at life.
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Not exactly what I expected….
- By kisa on 10-06-23
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Evenings and Weekends
- A Novel
- By: Oisín McKenna
- Narrated by: Isabel Adomakoh-Young
- Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Summer in London stops for no one. Not the half-naked drunks and stoners, the bachelorette parties glugging from bejewelled bottles, the drag queens puffing on hurried cigarettes. It’s June 2019, and everyone has converged on the city’s parks, beer gardens, and street corners to revel in the collective joys of being alive. Everyone but Maggie. She’s 30, pregnant, and broke.
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Amazing Narration
- By Kristen on 03-12-25
By: Oisín McKenna
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Luster
- A Novel
- By: Raven Leilani
- Narrated by: Ariel Blake
- Length: 6 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Edie is stumbling her way through her 20s - sharing a subpar apartment in Bushwick, clocking in and out of her admin job, making a series of inappropriate sexual choices. She is also haltingly, fitfully giving heat and air to the art that simmers inside her. And then she meets Eric, a digital archivist with a family in New Jersey, including an autopsist wife who has agreed to an open marriage - with rules.
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Spellbinding
- By Nana on 08-07-20
By: Raven Leilani
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Too Much of Life
- The Complete Crônicas
- By: Clarice Lispector
- Narrated by: Roxanne Hernandez
- Length: 23 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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The crônica, a literary genre peculiar to Brazilian newspapers, allows writers, or even soccer stars, to address a wide readership on any theme they like. Chatty, mystical, intimate, flirtatious, and revelatory, Clarice Lispector’s pieces for the Saturday edition of Rio’s leading paper, the Jornal do Brasil, from 1967 to 1973, take the forms of memories, essays, aphorisms, and serialized stories. Endlessly delightful, her insights make one sit up and think, whether about children or social ills or pets or society women or the business of writing or love.
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Love Radio
- By: Ebony LaDelle
- Narrated by: Joniece Abbott-Pratt, JaQwan J. Kelly
- Length: 8 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Prince Jones is the guy with all the answers—or so it seems. After all, at seventeen, he has his own segment on Detroit’s popular hip-hop show, Love Radio, where he dishes out advice to the brokenhearted. Prince has always dreamed of becoming a DJ and falling in love. But being the main caretaker for his mother, who has multiple sclerosis, and his little brother means his dreams will stay just that and the only romances in his life are the ones he hears about from his listeners. Until he meets Dani Ford.
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Let Love In
- By Meka on 08-30-22
By: Ebony LaDelle
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Exciting Times
- A Novel
- By: Naoise Dolan
- Narrated by: Aoife McMahon
- Length: 6 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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An intimate, bracingly intelligent debut novel about a millennial Irish expat who becomes entangled in a love triangle with a male banker and a female lawyer. Ava, newly arrived in Hong Kong from Dublin, spends her days teaching English to rich children. Julian is a banker. A banker who likes to spend money on Ava, to have sex and discuss fluctuating currencies with her. But when she asks whether he loves her, he cannot say more than "I like you a great deal".
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It was ok...
- By zobo on 06-25-20
By: Naoise Dolan
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Sorrow and Bliss
- A Novel
- By: Meg Mason
- Narrated by: Emilia Fox
- Length: 10 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Martha Friel just turned forty. Once, she worked at Vogue and planned to write a novel. Now, she creates internet content. She used to live in a pied-à-terre in Paris. Now she lives in a gated community in Oxford, the only person she knows without a PhD, a baby or both, in a house she hates but cannot bear to leave. But she must leave, now that her husband Patrick—the kind who cooks, throws her birthday parties, who loves her and has only ever wanted her to be happy—has just moved out.
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Very Disappointed -- 2.75 Stars
- By Sharlotte on 06-07-21
By: Meg Mason
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Breasts and Eggs
- By: Mieko Kawakami
- Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller, Jeena Yi
- Length: 15 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Breasts & Eggs paints a portrait of contemporary womanhood in Japan and recounts the intimate journeys of three women as they confront oppressive mores and their own uncertainties on the road to finding peace and futures they can truly call their own. It tells the story of three women: the 30-year-old Natsu, her older sister, Makiko, and Makiko’s daughter, Midoriko. Makiko has traveled to Tokyo in search of an affordable breast enhancement procedure. She is accompanied by Midoriko, who has recently grown silent.
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Masterful Writing and Performance
- By Noelle on 03-01-21
By: Mieko Kawakami
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Woman, Eating
- A Literary Vampire Novel
- By: Claire Kohda
- Narrated by: Jane Lui
- Length: 8 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Lydia is hungry. She's always wanted to try Japanese food. Sashimi, ramen, onigiri with sour plum stuffed inside - the food her Japanese father liked to eat. And then there is bubble tea and iced-coffee, ice cream and cake, and foraged herbs and plants, and the vegetables grown by the other young artists at the London studio space she is secretly squatting in. But, Lydia can't eat any of these things. Her body doesn't work like those of other people.
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Really wanted to like it.
- By Emily Nigh on 07-21-22
By: Claire Kohda
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Cold Enough for Snow
- By: Jessica Au
- Narrated by: Angela Lin
- Length: 3 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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A mother and daughter travel from abroad to meet in Tokyo. They walk along the canals through the autumn evenings, escape the typhoon rains, share meals in small cafes and restaurants, and visit galleries to see some of the city’s most radical modern art. All the while, they talk: about the weather, horoscopes, clothes, and objects, about family, distance, and memory. But uncertainties abound. Who is really speaking here - is it only the daughter? And what is the real reason behind this elliptical, perhaps even spectral journey?
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Great audio!!
- By David on 12-18-22
By: Jessica Au
What listeners say about Open Water
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- wangeci
- 02-24-23
initially meh...but...
Hard to follow story.
Pretty boring monotone narration.
Two stars for descriptions. Otherwise..a snooze fest.
I'm editing my review after persevering through the first 20 chapters. This story really picks up around it's 22nd chapter. It is really a heartfelt introspection into black immigration masculinity. A genre that doesn't come along everyday. While it may have taken too long to build up, one finally sees purpose in the backdrop the author develops so languarously. The 2nd person narration truly adds up when a man steps out of himself to look at himself.
Read on. It's definitely worthwhile, especially if race, masculinity, and mental health are of interest to you. I'm thoroughly impressed.
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- lenae
- 05-30-21
Black Love
Really good story about Black love ands somewhat unconventional way of Blackness. Voice is very monotone and calming.
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- SJ
- 10-11-23
A slow burn
But a beautiful one. Relatable, empathetic and emotionally intelligent. Great for bedtime listening. A book for and about artists constantly reflecting on contemporary Black artists in a way that I think skillfully dates the novel.
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- Essozimna Moise Ekpai
- 03-27-22
I am conflited
the writing style is not for me. you get only one point of view. would love to see what the other characters are up to. overall I like the portrait of how racial Préjudice and racial profiling can affect people and relationships.
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- Darnell Smith
- 03-20-23
Love Story Distracted
This is a beautifully written book but with you and fatal flaw which is the author got distracted in the third part on a story that's less about black love and more about black pain. the two sides of the story don't jive properly, resulting in a disjointed whiplash and a dissatisfying ending.
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- Amazon Customer
- 06-28-23
Powerful
It was so refreshing and therapeutic to hear such raw emotions about how it feels to be a black man in this world. Thank you for your vulnerability
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1 person found this helpful
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- Sibyl
- 03-21-23
Monotone
The narrator read in monotone. It was hard to follow the story because the narrator did not put any emotion or inflection, into the reading. The story itself was just ok. I wish there was more character development.
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- Ali Gonzalez
- 09-26-23
Beautiful
Amazing performance of a beautiful book. The ending was slightly lacking. A bit of a cliffhanger.
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- Ty
- 12-23-22
done very well. you will truly enjoy it
done very well. b The author takes his time and it's very poetic. I truly enjoyed
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- Anonymous User
- 05-26-23
What a beautiful story
I’ve never felt so passionately about a book to go to the extent of writing a review. But this book deserves the praises and all its flowers.
It’s like I never knew words, feelings, could be described as they were. And it was so beautiful.
It talked of a perspective others have tried to describe, yet this book makes it feel as if it were told for the first time.
I cannot wait for a few years, when I forget the details of this book, to be able to read/listen, and once again be reminded.
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