Brown is one of the most exciting voices in contemporary British fiction, and will examine storytelling, media, power and the dangerous seduction of a good narrative.

Sharp, unsettling, and darkly funny, Universality probes the slippery boundaries between truth and fiction, reality and performance. Through a cast of characters expertly wielding language for power, profit, and influence, Brown exposes how cultural narratives are shaped and who gets to control them.

Natasha Brown will appear in conversation with Nicole Abadee. Book signings will be available in the Library foyer following the discussion.

This event is in partnership with Canberra Writers Festival.

About Universality

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 Natasha Brown

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.

About Nicole Abadee

Nicole Abadee has worked in the book industry for many years after her previous career as a barrister. She writes about books for Good Weekend, and appears regularly as a facilitator at writers' festivals and literary events. She also has a popular podcast, Books, Books, Books in which she interviews top Australian and international writers about their latest books. Nicole is also a director of the Indigenous Literacy Foundation.