On top of everything, she is diagnosed with cancer and has to make a decision regarding her treatment. Despite having known how much of a difference privilege can make in one’s life, walking into a world vastly different from hers makes this reality especially tangible. She receives a promotion and is bombarded at the firm by comments of being a “diversity hire.” At the same time, she gets invited to her boyfriend’s parents’ garden-party and encounters the life of the white and rich like never before. The novel captures a critical period in her life where disruptive moments, both good and bad, come one after the other. “Assembly” is the story of its Black, British narrator, an Oxbridge graduate who works at a finance firm. I managed to fit Natasha Brown’s 112-page debut novel, “Assembly.” Don’t let the novella’s brevity deceive you, because those 112 pages were enough for Brown to convey a compelling story, disheartening yet relatable for far too many people. With the coat, my laptop, all the documents you have to carry as an international student and hand sanitizers, I didn’t have a lot of space left - but I had to have a book. I had fit a coat in the bag for the snowy weather that would welcome me once we landed. I boarded the 14-hour flight back home for spring break with just one backpack.
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