Assembly

Product Description
“The electrifying fiction debut that has been called ‘a modern Mrs. Dalloway.’”—THE ATLANTIC"Mind-bending and utterly original."—Brandon Taylor“Slim in the hand, but its impact is massive.”—Ali SmithOne woman. One day. One decision. A blistering, fearless, and unforgettable literary debut from "a stunning new writer." (Bernardine Evaristo)
Come of age in the credit crunch. Be civil in a hostile environment. Go to college, get an education, start a career. Do all the right things. Buy an apartment. 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. With a steely, unfaltering gaze, Natasha Brown dismantles the mythology of whiteness, lining up the debris in a neat row and walking away.
Review
PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY Top Ten Books of the Year
LOS ANGELES TIMES Most Anticipated Books of the Fall
THE WASHINGTON POST Best Books of September
LIT HUB Most Anticipated Books of the Year
POPSUGAR Best Books of September
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY Best Books of September
ESSENCE Best Books of Fall
OPRAH QUARTERLY, Must Read Books of Fall
THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER Best Books of September
THE MILLIONS Most Anticipated Books of September
SHONDALAND, Best Fall Reads
MS. MAGAZINE, Best September Reads
TOWN & COUNTRY, Must Read Books of Fall\n“Natasha Brown’s exquisite prose, daring structure and understated elegance are utterly captivating. She is a stunning new writer.”―
BERNARDINE EVARISTO, Booker Prize-winning author of GIRL, WOMAN, OTHER\n“Mind-bending and utterly original.
Assembly is like Thomas Bernhard in the key of Rachel Cusk but about black subjectivity.”
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BRANDON TAYLOR, author of REAL LIFE and FILTHY ANIMALS\n“The narrator of this tightly conceived and distinctively written debut novel is perceptive, precise and unsparing with her words…an elegiac examination of a Black woman’s life and an acerbic analysis of Britain’s racial landscape. Brown’s rhythmic, economic prose renders the narrator’s experiences with breathless clarity, especially the steady, gnawing stream of racial and sexual harassment she faces. At only 100 pages, the book moves at an almost dizzying speed…
Assembly is a smart novel that takes risks with the questions it raises. I look forward to Brown’s next work, in which she might try — with the same refreshing conviction — to answer them.”
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NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW\n“[A] crisp debut...As well as being a shrewd exploration of the psychological toll of generational trauma and colonial legacies, the book is also, thanks to its biting humor, a broad criticism of the absurdity of contemporary life.”―
THE NEW YORKER\n“The fall's biggest debut comes from a former banker in London, who delivers a brisk, affecting diary of a young Black woman contemplating an opt-out of capitalism and life entirely. It's
Mrs. Dalloway for the burnout generation, the anticapitalism manifesto millennials have been waiting for.”
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ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY (Best Books of September)\n“
Assembly is brilliant. Brown’s gaze is piercing. Each sentence is a perfectly polished jewel.”―
AVNI DOSHI, author of BURNT SUGAR\n“A modern
Mrs. Dalloway…a short sharp shock of a novel…
Assembly fulfils, with exquisite precision, Virginia Woolf’s exhortation to ‘record the atoms as they fall upon the mind in the order in which they fall’ …Text that is sparse on the page expands on consumption; it swell