Fallow

沒有牙醫保險、專長技能又背負學貸的納塔莉，在接聽無數性騷擾申訴的客服中心裡，深刻領悟到「世上根本沒有好工作」。直到賣血時一張神秘傳單出現，她決定放手一搏，簽約成為全球首位「企業專屬代理孕母」——承諾在十年內為女性高階主管生下七個孩子，讓主管們無須請產假也能享受母職，換取極為優渥的報酬。

這份工作帶來了無與倫比的享受：奢華公寓、專屬健身教練、營養師與全天候醫療照護。每次生產後的「休耕期」，她能完全卸下責任，徹底放鬆。這不僅讓她第一次覺得自己擅長工作，更嘗到前所未有的自由。然而，就在合約即將期滿，一項突如其來的人事變動打破了平靜，將她硬生生拉入另一場截然不同的社會實驗。

莎拉•安德森（Sarah Anderson）以扎心幽默又真摯動人的筆觸，將《休耕期》打造為一部極具警世意味的黑色諷刺小說。故事帶領讀者看著納塔莉在資本主義的刀口上尋求平衡，並在荒謬與震撼的境遇中，重新思索自由、人生目標與自己究竟想成為怎樣的人。

Slyly funny and disarmingly tender, Fallow is the story of a young woman who signs up to be the world’s first in-house corporate surrogate, then finds herself caught up in a social experiment of another kind.

Natalie knows one truth: there is no such thing as a good job.

As the clock ticks away at the call center where she logs complaints of workplace harassment, she tries to ignore the increasing pain in her jaw. She has no dental insurance. She has no skills or ambitions. She has student loans. And, minute by minute, she hears the many ways workers are not just not getting by, but actually getting hustled.

Then, at the blood bank where she sells her plasma, a mysterious flyer leads her to The Company. Natalie turns out to be the perfect candidate for their pilot program, pitched as an opportunity to help women access greater gender equity. She will be their in-house surrogate, delivering seven babies in ten years and enabling their executives to have motherhood without maternity leave. Finally, she will be adequately―generously―compensated.

For years, her every need is met: stacks of healthy meals in the refrigerator of a luxury condo, fitness coaches and nutritionists, around-the-clock health care. Between deliveries, she takes time off― a fallow period, with no obligations or expectations. For the first time in her life, she is good at her job; for the first time, she feels free.

But just as she’s about to fulfill the terms of her contract, a staffing decision upends everything. Natalie is pulled into an entirely different kind of social experiment, one that raises new questions about her future, her freedom, her purpose, what she can expect from the world, and what she can offer to it.

Woundingly funny and genuinely moving, Sarah Anderson’s Fallow is a tender, alarmingly real vision of a woman balancing on the knife-edge of capitalism as she comes to realize who she wants to be.