I used to spend the summer holidays at their house and often explored their bookshelves.

My childhood reading was largely dictated by the books my family had. What did you read as a child? Natasha Brown What happens if one lets go and refuses to ascend? What happens if one’s body no longer cooperates, no longer functions in such a society?įive Dials spoke to Natasha at her home over Zoom. As she prepares for the event, she considers the path that brought her into the heart of inherited wealth and old money. But does this path to assimilation come with its own cost?Īssembly is set at an estate in the English countryside where the narrator has been asked to attend a party thrown by her boyfriend’s parents. When Brown’s narrator is asked by her employers to speak to young students at school assemblies, she is held up as an example of diversity and achievement. The novel outlines the lengths one Black British woman will go to challenge these constraints and reject what is expected from her, even after she has achieved what looks to be enviable status in the world of finance. Within these tight constraints she finds room to examine the lingering colonial structures that prop up British society, as well as the legacy of slavery, and the pinpricks of everyday misogyny and microaggression. Dalloway meets Citizen by Claudia Rankine.Natasha Brown’s Assembly is a concise, fragmentary novel that runs to 100 pages. You'll read it in one sitting' Sunday Times Style'Expertly crafted, remarkable, astonishing.Ī literary debut with flavours of Jordan Peele's Get Out' Bookseller, Editor's Choice'Virginia Woolf's Mrs. She is preparing to attend a lavish garden party at her boyfriend's family estate, set deep in the English countryside.Īt the same time, she is considering the carefully assembled pieces of herself.Īs the minutes tick down and the future beckons, she can't escape the question: is it time to take it all apart?'One of the most talked-about debuts of the year. The narrator of Assembly is a Black British woman.

Go to Oxbridge, get an education, start a career. SHORTLISTED FOR THE FOLIO PRIZE 2022SHORTLISTED FOR THE GOLDSMITHS PRIZE 2021SHORTLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL FICTION 2022 SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKS ARE MY BAG FICTION AWARD 2021SHORTLISTED FOR THE BETTY TRASK PRIZE 2022LONGLISTED FOR THE DESMOND ELLIOTT PRIZE 2022'Diamond-sharp, timely and urgent' Observer, Best Debuts of 2021'Subtle, elegant, scorching' Vogue'Virtuosic, exquisite, achingly unique' Guardian'I'm full of the hope, on reading it, that this is the kind of book that doesn't just mark the moment things change, but also makes that change possible' Ali Smith'Exquisite, daring, utterly captivating.Ī stunning new writer' Bernardine EvaristoCome of age in the credit crunch.īe civil in a hostile environment.

Assembly book natasha brown