On an abandoned Yorkshire farm, a group of hippie-anarchists have taken up residence to build a new society. When their leader is brutally bludgeoned with a solid gold bar, an ambitious young journalist sets out to uncover the truth behind the attack. The longread exposé she writes goes viral – but is there more to the story than meets the eye?
Universality: ‘Utterly phenomenal.’ ELIZABETH DAY eBook : Brown, Natasha: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store
A gold bar is deceptively heavy (A FOOL’S GOLD, FIRST PUBLISHED IN ALAZON MAGAZINE, 17 JUNE 2021)
(Faber & Faber, Kindle Book, 11 March 2025, 128 pages, borrowed from North Ayrshire Libraries via Borrowbox)
I read the author’s other book, Assembly and thought it was just okay despite the rave reviews. I didn’t hate it though and decided to give her another shot so read Universality which I enjoyed a lot more. Like Assembly, this is a very short read. I class it as a novella and not a novel due to it’s length. Yet, so much happens in these scant pages. The solid gold bar incident really serves as a catalyst for a book that explores greed, capitalism and the world’s growing obsession with social media. I really enjoyed this and would recommend it.
4/5
