Universality: 'Utterly phenomenal.' ELIZABETH DAY (Hardback) - Natasha Brown (Author)

In the new novel from the author of Assembly, a viral longread expos raises more questions than it answers.

A MUST-READ NOVEL OF 2025 IN THE GUARDIAN, SUNDAY TIMES, GQ, ELLE, WATERSTONES AND GOOD HOUSEKEEPING, AMONG OTHERS

'An instant classic.' ELLE
'Brave, wry, cool, and thrilling.' ANDREW O'HAGAN
'Original, vital, and unputdownable.' TESS GUNTY
'Utterly phenomenal.' ELIZABETH DAY
'Smart, twisty and original.' DAVID NICHOLLS

Remember - words are your weapons, they're your tools, your currency.

Late one night on a Yorkshire farm, a man is brutally bludgeoned with a solid gold bar.

A plucky 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. She solves the mystery, but her viral longread expose raises more questions than it answers.

Universality is a twisty, slippery descent into the rhetoric of truth and power. Through a voyeuristic lens, it focuses on words: what we say, how we say it, and what we really mean. The follow-up novel to Natasha Brown's Assembly is a compellingly nasty celebration of the spectacular force of language. It dares you to look away.

About the Author

Natasha Brown is a British novelist.

Her debut novel Assembly was shortlisted for awards including the Folio Prize, the Goldsmiths Prize and the Orwell Prize for Fiction. Natasha was named one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists in 2023 and one of the Observer's Best Debut Novelists in 2021.