Study. Make a career. Be polite even in a hostile environment. Buy an apartment. Buy works of art. Buy some kind of happiness. But above all, bow your head. Be prudent and persevere… The narrator, a British woman, daughter of African immigrants, has set her sights on social and economic advancement at any cost. She is a high-ranking bank executive and is preparing to marry a scion of an old bourgeois family. Then, a medical diagnosis forces her to reconsider her choices.

The British Natasha Brown (b. 1990) was awarded the London Writers (2019), while The Meeting, "an impressive writing debut, bold, captivating" (Bernardine Evaristo), was shortlisted for the Folio, Goldsmiths, and Orwell Fiction literary awards.