Assembly by Natasha Brown

£12.99

Bookseller Review by Elle:

Powerfully written. A really promising debut that showcases some really lovely and effective narrative writing as well as some hard-hitting poetry pieces. Brown tackles race and class with wit and elegance. Very real feeling, very British, and utterly devastating.

Available – Ready for despatch or collection within 5 - 7 days

ISBN: 9780241515709 Category: Tag:

Description

Come 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?

Assembly is a story about the stories we live within – those of race and class, safety and freedom, winners and losers. And it is about one woman daring to take control of her own story, even at the cost of her life.

‘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 Evaristo

‘Subtle, elegant, scorching… The literary debut of the summer’ – Vogue

‘Virtuosic, exquisite, achingly unique’ – Guardian