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Assembly
- Narrated by: Pippa Bennett-Warner
- Length: 1 hr and 58 mins
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Assembly
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Summary
Brought to you by Penguin.
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?
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Critic reviews
"Natasha Brown's exquisite prose, daring structure and understated elegance are utterly captivating. She is a stunning new writer." (Bernardine Evaristo, author of the Booker Prize-winning Girl, Woman, Other)
What listeners say about Assembly
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 26-10-22
Beautifully written
Black feminism that is rarely touched upon. This book is rare read, it’s beautiful crafted not a word is wasted in a narrative of life experience that is only truly understood by those who have lived it.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 15-06-21
Heartbreaking Read
Astonishingly moving. It breaks my heart to read these struggles still present among such success.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Seema Barker
- 17-12-21
Beautifully read, powerfully written
Very basic narrative. In the end I wish it had been longer with more structure because I think the author is so powerful in her writing
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 07-01-23
Beautiful and important
Beautifully written. Beautifully read. Feels like an important read. I am beyond moved. Thank you.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- JESSICA DROMGOOLE
- 25-06-21
Short and oblique but so powerful
Beautiful reading by Pippa Bennett-Warner of a brief moment in the life of a high-achieving black woman whose sensitivity to the everyday racism and misogyny around her are finely tuned anyway but heightened by a huge decision she’s making. I don’t want to spoil it so can’t say more, but it’s fantastic.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Henry Howie
- 22-01-23
Rather disappointing
An interesting take on the issues of women, race, class, and other important issues but I didn’t feel they were integrated into a good story and found some of the stereotypes very cliched.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Jacob Knox-Hooke
- 14-02-23
Incredible view into Black British identity
As a Black person born and bred in the UK, this short book is a sobering, eye-opening and accurate portrayal of the often unseen challenges. The book grapples with identity and the assumptions underlying living in the UK amongst an atmosphere of policy and norms which relegate black and brown people to being ‘other’.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Zena
- 24-09-21
incredible
this is such an excellent, painfully beautiful book. I can see myself reading/listening to it many more times, and I will recommend it.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Leah N M Brown
- 05-06-21
100% worth reading
People who have had experiences like Natasha’s will love this. And for those who haven’t, I expect the perspective given in this book will be eye opening. Beautifully written, wonderfully read, highly recommend.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Jacques
- 18-04-23
A bit of a shock
I really wanted to know what it could be like to be a highly educated black person, a minority in a sea of whites in an atmosphere of 'diversity'. My reaction is one of recoil against the indirect sarcasm of a girl expecting not to be treated as different. She is after all different in so many ways that wallowing in her outrage against pretty much everything seems to me ridiculous. Caught in trap of moral indignation against not belonging, being an outsider, being the odd one out , when inevitably, she actually is. Her way of dealing with it is to become contemptuous of those around her naturally treading on eggshells trying to avoid the race, class, privilege barrier. I felt no sympathy and am left angry that the tone of this whole story, though brilliantly conceived, is plain mockery.
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2 people found this helpful