Assembly

Natasha Brown

From Shelf: Official Indie top 12 Fiction (week 18 2022)

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. A stunning new writer' Bernardine EvaristoCome of age in the credit crunch. Be civil in a hostile environment. Step out into a world of Go Home vans. Go to Oxbridge, get an education, start a career. Do all the right things. Buy a flat. Buy art. Buy a sort of happiness. But above all, keep your head down. Keep quiet. And keep going.The narrator of Assembly is a Black British woman. She is preparing to attend a lavish garden party at her boyfriend's family estate, set deep in the English countryside. At the same time, she is considering the carefully assembled pieces of herself. As 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 . . . You'll read it in one sitting' Sunday Times Style'Expertly crafted, remarkable, astonishing... A literary debut with flavours of Jordan Peele's Get Out' Bookseller, Editor's Choice'Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway meets Citizen by Claudia Rankine... As breathtakingly graceful as it is mercilessly true' Olivia Sudjic'Bold and original, with a cool intelligence, and so very truthful about the colonialist structure of British society' Diana Evans 'This marvel of a novel manages to say all there is to say about Britain today' Sabrina Mahfouz