This <b>topical, provocative</b> debut anatomises class, race and the American dream
Guardian
An <b>intelligent, thought-provoking, slyly satirical</b> novel with thrillerish elements, it is also <b>affectingly illuminating about life for an expatriate service class</b>
Sunday Times
<b>If you only read a single debut this year, make it <i>The Farm</i></b>
Vogue, Must-Reads
<b>It’s so now</b> … Ramos has crafted a real page-turner that<b> combines all the hottest issues of the day</b>: inequality, race, and women’s battle to reclaim their bodies from commodification by big business, with the eternal questions of how much we can sacrifice before losing ourselves completely
- Melissa Katsoulis, The Times
Her book is a necessary one –<b> we need a mass-market novel that shows the impact of colonisation </b>… <b>A great read</b>
- Dina Nayeri, Guardian
<b>Utterly brilliant. I couldn’t put it down!</b>
- Christie Watson, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Language of Kindness,
<b>Crammed with acutely observed scenes that place reproduction within an intricate web of class, gender and race</b>
Observer
<b>For those who can’t wait until September for Margaret Atwood’s sequel to <i>The Handmaid’s Tale</i></b>, here’s a handy interim stand-in. Class, race and issues of power inequality are on the agenda almost as much as gender in this novel about a fertility clinic where surrogates have babies for the ultra-wealthy
i paper
Excellent … With echoes of <i>The Help</i> and <i>The Handmaid’s Tale</i>, <i>The Farm</i> is tipped to be <b>one of the biggest books of the summer</b>, a page-turner which strikes an entertaining balance between exploring topical issues and telling a great story with thoroughly likeable characters
Daily Express
An i<b>ntelligent, thought-provoking, slyly satirical</b> novel with thrillerish elements, it is also affectingly illuminating about life for an expatriate service class
SUNDAY TIMES
You can’t move for feminist dystopias in these Atwoodian times. <b>Joanne Ramos’s debut is one of the best</b>
The Times
<b>Intelligent and finely written</b> ... Powerful
- LUCY SCHOLES, I PAPER
A narrative resembling a cross between <i>Rosemary’s Baby</i> and Dave Eggers’s tech thriller <i>The Circle</i> … <b>Addictive, thought-provoking entertainment</b>
Daily Mail
<b>An easy read that raises difficult, capital-I issues</b> … There’s plenty to unsettle here
Mail on Sunday
<b>A new <i>Handmaid’s Tale</i> </b>
Sun
<b>It’s a provocative idea, and Ramos nails it</b> … <b>Crisp and believable</b>, this smart debut links the poor and the 1 percent in a unique transaction that turns out to be mutually rewarding
People
<b>Chillingly plausible</b>
- Sophie Mackintosh, author of the Booker-longlisted The Water Cure,
<b>Couldn’t be more relevant or timely</b>
O Magazine
<b>Unnervingly plausible</b>
Economist
Everything has a price in this<b> promising and compelling </b>dystopian debut
Red, This Month’s Best Books
Billed as <b>the new <i>Handmaid’s Tale</i></b>, Joanne Ramos’s debut follows a luxury yet terrifying retreat for surrogate mothers
Grazia
Ramos is good at making the dystopian feel contemporary, or perhaps that should be the other way round … Ramos’s debut<b> smuggles a sharp attack on America’s entrenched inequality into a <i>Handmaid’s Tale</i>-style chiller about surrogacy</b>
Metro
An excoriation of capitalist exploitation, for dystopian darkness and sinister consequences … Timely, resonant, morally complex
Literary Review
<b>Brilliantly cutting</b>
- Reni Eddo-Lodge, author of Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race,
<b>A knock-out debut novel</b>
- Paula Daly, author of 'Open Your Eyes',
<b>Wow</b> ... <b>Truly unforgettable</b>
- Gary Shteyngart,
<b>It’s a provocative idea, and Ramos nails it</b> … Crisp and believable, this smart debut links the poor and the 1 percent in a unique transaction that turns out to be mutually rewarding
People
Joanne Ramos’ tender, trenchant debut <b>chillingly explores a dystopian future </b>where race, class, power and poverty all play their part in paid-for pregnancies
Psychologies
<b>One of the most hotly anticipated debuts this year – and for good reason</b>
Cosmopolitan
<b>Smart and thought-provoking</b>
Stylist
<b>An unsettling, unputdownable read</b>
Elle
The first debut of 2019 to grab the top spot for me ... Don't miss this one
Bookseller, Book of the Month
<i>The Farm</i> terrifies with a simple question: <b>How much of ourselves are we willing to sell? </b>With <b>characters so real they leap off the page, Ramos yanks the reader into a world of Haves and Have-Nots</b>, and her question lingers long after we turn the final page
- Christina Dalcher, author of Vox,
<b>Amazing</b>. It’s hard to explain what <i>The Farm</i> is about, because <b>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</b>
- Joanna Cannon, Sunday Times bestselling author of Three Things About Elsie and The Trouble with Goats and Sheep,
Ramos has written <b>a firecracker of a novel</b>,<b> at once caustic and tender, page-turning and thought-provoking.</b> This is a fierce indictment of the vampiric nature of modern capitalism, which never loses sight of the very human stories at its center. <b>Highly recommended</b>
- Madeline Miller, author of Circe,
<b>The debut to order now</b> ... Think <i>Never Let Me Go</i> meets <i>The Handmaid’s Tale</i>
Sunday Times
A <b>highly original and provocative</b> story about the impossible choices in so many women’s lives. <b>These characters will stay with me for a long time</b>
- Karen Thompson Walker, author of 'The Age of Miracles',
<b>Consider this <i>The Handmaid’s Tale </i>of 2019</b> … In the vein of <i>The Circle</i>, 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
A delicately paced and finely wrought tale … <b>A biting critique of the world’s inequalities</b> … Moving, ethically complex and gripping, <i>The Farm </i>is<b> a great novel</b>
Herald
Compelling … <b>Will really make you think</b>
GOOD HOUSEKEEPING
It reads like a thriller but it is <b>hard-hitting about race, money and inequality</b>
BEST
<b>We loved this book</b>
TAKE A BREAK
Joanne Ramos’s<b> tender, trenchant debut</b> chillingly explores a dystopian future where race, class, power and poverty all play their part in paid-for pregnancies
PSYCHOLOGIES
Unnervingly plausible
ECONOMIST