Universality

Universality

Natasha Brown

#2420 of 8,085 books · #799 in Crime & Thriller

Shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction (2025). Also longlisted for 1 other award.

Universality was longlisted for the Booker Prize and was an NPR and Publishers Weekly best book of the year. 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.