Universality - by Natasha Brown (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Late one night on a Yorkshire farm, in the midst of an illegal rave, a young man is nearly bludgeoned to death with a solid gold bar. An ambitious young journalist sets out to uncover the truth surrounding the attack, connecting the dots between an amoral banker landlord, an iconoclastic columnist, and a radical anarchist movement that has taken up residence on the farm. She solves the mystery, but her viral exposâe raises more questions than it answers, namely: Who wrote it? Why? And how much of it is true? Through a voyeuristic lens, and with a simmering power, it focuses in on words: what we say, how we say it, and what we really mean"--

Book Synopsis

LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE - "A bold and memorable achievement."--The Booker Prize 2025 judges

Remember--words are your weapons, they're your tools, your currency a twisty, slippery descent into the rhetoric of power, hailed as "a nesting doll of satire that leaves readers uncertain where their loyalties lie" (Financial Times)

"Original, vital, and unputdownable."--Tess Gunty, National Book Award-winning author of The Rabbit Hutch

Late one night on a Yorkshire farm, in the midst of an illegal rave, a young man is nearly bludgeoned to death with a solid gold bar.

An ambitious young journalist sets out to uncover the truth surrounding the attack, connecting the dots between an amoral banker landlord, an iconoclastic newspaper columnist, and a radical anarchist movement that has taken up residence on the farm. She solves the mystery, but her viral exposé raises more questions than it answers. Through a voyeuristic lens, and with a simmering power, Universality focuses on words: what we say, how we say it, and what we really mean.

A thrilling novel from one of the most acclaimed young novelists working today, Universality is a compelling, unsettling celebration of the spectacular, appalling force of language. It dares you to look away.

Review Quotes

"Brown is one of our most intelligent voices writing today, able to block out the short-term chatter around both identity and language in order to excavate much more uncomfortable truths."--The Guardian

"[Brown] has a sharp, unrelenting eye for the tangled dynamics that simmer underneath the surface of social interactions. . . . Universality is the sort of book that forces you to question yourself."--The Independent

"Brings to mind a modern Jane Austen."--The Financial Times

"Universality is a rare novel. It's bold and brilliant. The humor is wry and, at times, cutting. But more than that, it's an intelligent and humorous examination of class and wealth--and a real page-turner to boot. I will read anything Natasha Brown writes."--Molly Aitken, author of Bright I Burn

"[Brown's] second novel, Universality, more than delivers on the promise of her first. It is terrific; a pin-sharp, savagely funny tale of class, wealth and manipulation."--The Bookseller

"Fiction that dares to take on the feat of a modern-day social commentary--and pulls it off. Brown is snappy and clever, tying together a complex narrative of flawed characters trying to make it in an exploitative world. Somehow, her prose is sympathetic in its objectivity. Readers might find themselves staring off into a distant corner, brows furrowed, wondering why they're so inclined to understand or to even like her most disreputable characters."--Flaunt Magazine

"In what is proving to be her signature architecture--a compact, cunning design of secret passageways--Brown immerses the reader in a house of haunted language. Fixing its attention on the cultural mutations of the extraction economy, Universality implicates everyone and condemns no one. I emerged from this novel with the conviction that the murder victim Brown is here to avenge is discourse itself. . . . Original, vital, and unputdownable."--Tess Gunty, author of The Rabbit Hutch

"Universality is smart and expansive, keen on the intricacies of language and class."--Raven Leilani, author of Luster

"I think that is the book everyone will be reading and talking about in 2025. Brave, wry, cool, and thrilling, Universality is the kind of fiction that makes you sit up and feel alive."--Andrew O'Hagan, author of Caledonian Road

"Another sharp serve from a brilliant mind."--Paul Mendez, author of Rainbow Milk

"Ambitious and stimulating . . . Brown's narrative is less concerned with the crime than with astutely portraying the thorny, complex ways that class and race seep into news, information, and language itself--and how they can be utilized for personal gain. As in Susan Choi's Trust Exercise and Lisa Halliday's Asymmetry, part of the fun is in seeing where the story will jump to next, and the ways in which each new perspective changes the reader's understanding. The result is a dizzying and fascinating tale."--Publishers Weekly, starred review

About the Author

Natasha Brown was named one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists. Her debut novel, Assembly, was shortlisted for the Folio Prize, the Goldsmiths Prize, and the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction.