The Farm
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- €8.99
Publisher Description
A gripping story about race, money and motherhood that asks: what would you sacrifice for a new life?
'A firecracker of a novel'
Madeline Miller
'Intelligent, thought-provoking, slyly satirical'
Sunday Times
'About everything a book should be about: race and class, power and inequality - and it's dark and funny'
Joanna Cannon
'An unsettling, unputdownable read'
Elle
'Ramos has crafted a real page-turner' The Times
Ambitious businesswoman Mae Yu runs Golden Oaks - a luxury retreat transforming the fertility industry. There, women get the very best of everything: organic meals, fitness trainers, daily massages and big money. Provided they dedicate themselves to producing the perfect baby. For someone else.
Jane is a young immigrant in search of a better future. Stuck living in a cramped dorm with her baby daughter and her shrewd aunt Ate, she sees an unmissable chance to change her life. But at what cost?
Chosen as a book of the summer by the Guardian, Telegraph, Evening Standard and Cosmopolitan
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Ramos's transfixing debut scrutinizes the world of high-end surrogacy with stinging critiques and sets up heartrending dilemmas. Timid Filipina immigrant Jane is persuaded by her much older cousin Evelyn to apply as a surrogate, known as a "host," for the ultrarich after she is fired from her lucrative nannying job. Jane passes the highly selective process, hesitantly leaves her own infant daughter with Evelyn, and, already pregnant, moves into Golden Oaks, a luxury resort-style center in the Hudson Valley where the surrogates live together. Assertive, smooth-talking Mae runs Golden Oaks with strict rules, very curtailed outside contact, and constant surveillance. Jane bonds quickly with her roommate, Reagan, an aspiring photographer and "premium host" (because she's white), who hopes the staggering bonuses for healthy delivery will allow her to escape her father's control. Lisa, another surrogate returning for her third pregnancy, disastrously pulls Jane and Reagan into her schemes to subvert rules. After Jane learns some secrets about Mae and Evelyn, her concern for her absent daughter propels her on a dangerous path that threatens Mae's ambitious plans and Jane's security. Ramos particularly shines at her nuanced, emotional depictions of these women's interior struggles. A surefire hit with book groups, this striking novel will also appeal strongly to readers who like dystopian touches and ethically complicated narratives.
