Pre Pub Book Buzz: The Farm by Joanne Ramos

It's crazy to think that I'm already looking ahead to 2019 titles for my TBR! Ah, well, with a baby on the way it kind of seems like time has sped up exponentially.

And maybe it's because I have a baby on the way that Joanne Ramos's The Farm caught my eye.

Here's a bit about the book:

Welcome to Golden Oaks, the next big thing in the fertility economy. Backed by a multibillion-dollar conglomerate, “The Farm” is fitted with every amenity for the surrogates who have come to bring babies of the very rich to term. In return, these “hosts” offer a nine-month lease on their bodies for the opportunity to earn “big money” that will change the trajectory of their often difficult lives.

Meet Jane, a young Filipina immigrant whose host fee will go to support her infant daughter; idealistic college graduate Reagan, who will use hers to break from the expectations of her domineering father; Mae Yu, the HBS-educated director of Golden Oaks whose ambitions extend far beyond the facility; and Ate (“Ah-tay”) Evelyn, Jane’s 67-year-old cousin, a shrewd, in-demand baby nurse for the rich with plans of her own. Via the Farm’s vibrant cast of characters, the novel details a spectrum of female experience in a word that is very nearly ours.

As the intersecting lives of these women play out against the backdrop of the rural Hudson Valley, the lavish homes of the One Percent, and the crowded dormitory in Queens where immigrant service workers rent beds by the half day, the novel calls into question a woman’s agency over her body, and, ultimately, illuminates the tradeoffs women will make to fortify their futures, and the futures of those they love.

The Farm is due out in May from Random House.