LoveReading Says
An intriguing and thoughtful debut that pushes, prods, and provokes thoughts on social class, wealth and motherhood. Golden Oaks is a retreat that locates and looks after host females who act as surrogates for the extraordinarily rich, those who can’t or don’t want to carry their own child. Every move, every heartbeat of each host is monitored until they give birth. We follow the lives of four women, each with very different reasons for their involvement with the retreat known by the occupants as The Farm. For the first few chapters I sat on the edge, watching and learning, I then felt myself sliding into the pages, fully immersed, compelled to witness. Joanne Ramos has created a fascinating storyline, with intimate access to the thought processes of the four women ensuring I was able to observe the interaction, the assumptions, the decisions made. The Farm is a clever, challenging debut, and while set just in the future, is very much of our time.
Liz Robinson
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The Farm Synopsis
Life is a lucrative business, as long as you play by the rules...
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?
Perfect for fans of Celeste Ng, Margaret Atwood, Naomi Alderman, Sophie Mackintosh, Christine Dalcher and anyone who loved The Help or Orange Is the New Black.
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Joanne Ramos Press Reviews
This topical, provocative debut anatomises class, race and the American dream - Guardian
Utterly brilliant. I couldn't put it down! -- Christie Watson, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Language of Kindness Chillingly plausible -- Sophie Mackintosh, author of the Booker-longlisted The Water Cure Couldn't be more relevant or timely - O Magazine
Brilliantly cutting -- Reni Eddo-Lodge, author of Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race A knock-out debut novel -- Paula Daly, author of 'Open Your Eyes' Wow ... Truly unforgettable -- Gary Shteyngart One of the most hotly anticipated debuts this year - and for good reason - Cosmopolitan
Smart and thought-provoking - Stylist
An unsettling, unputdownable read - Elle
The first debut of 2019 to grab the top spot for me ... Don't miss this one - Bookseller, Book of the Month
The Farm terrifies with a simple question: How much of ourselves are we willing to sell? With characters so real they leap off the page, Ramos yanks the reader into a world of Haves and Have-Nots, and her question lingers long after we turn the final page -- Christina Dalcher, author of Vox Amazing. It's hard to explain what The Farm is about, because it's about everything a book SHOULD be about. Race and class and power and inequality, and it's dark & funny ALL AT THE SAME TIME -- Joanna Cannon, Sunday Times bestselling author of Three Things About Elsie and The Trouble with Goats and Sheep Ramos has written a firecracker of a novel, at once caustic and tender, page-turning and thought-provoking. This is a fierce indictment of the vampiric nature of modern capitalism, which never loses sight of the very human stories at its center. Highly recommended -- Madeline Miller, author of Circe The debut to order now ... Think Never Let Me Go meets The Handmaid's Tale - Sunday Times
A highly original and provocative story about the impossible choices in so many women's lives. These characters will stay with me for a long time -- Karen Thompson Walker, author of 'The Age of Miracles' Consider this The Handmaid's Tale of 2019 ... In the vein of The Circle, but somehow more penetrating and realistic - Marie Claire
Ramos creates a believable dystopian future where poor women try to make money and change their societal standing by offering up their bodies to house and deliver healthy babies for the rich. The novel alternates perspectives between four women and provides notes on fundamental inequalities -- The best books to look forward to in 2019 - Evening Standard
Excellent, both as a reproductive dystopian narrative and as a social novel about women and class -- Starred Review - Kirkus
