Fallow - by Sarah Anderson (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

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.

Review Quotes

Long-listed for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize
A Book of the Month Club pick
Winner of the Air Mail Tom Wolfe Literary Prize for Fiction
A Prose Society pick

"I loved Fallow. Funny, intelligent and unputdownable, this is the book that everyone will be talking about."
--Olivia Colman, Academy Award-winning actress

"Ingenious . . . a brilliant debut."
--Caro Claire Burke, author of Yesteryear

"Subversive and surprising . . . The dystopian inventions in Fallow are only a syllable or less away from our present reality . . . In its wonderful, wily final act, Fallow asks what it would mean to truly carry the women around you, and what it might cost to be carried in return."
--Hilary Leichter, The New York Times Book Review

"Very funny . . . In prose that is sharp and entertaining, Anderson refreshingly takes on several familiar themes at once: the hidden tolls that working women still face, the stranglehold of Big Tech, the Orwellian nature of corporate-speak, the relentless self-monitoring of wellness culture. Anderson's greatest feat of character construction is Natalie herself, particularly her voice . . . Anderson isn't out to offer a utopian release from the conundrum of work-life balance; she's reminding us that the demands of nurture and structure are inevitably muddled."
--Stephanie Hayes, The Atlantic

"By doing away with some of the disparities that traditionally loom over both fictional and real-life surrogacy narratives, Anderson . . . poses a stark question: If surrogacy exploits women, then who, exactly, is doing the exploiting? . . . Natalie is witheringly funny, but also superficial, incurious, and utterly devoid of maternal instincts, an antihero along the lines of the nameless protagonist of Ottessa Moshfegh's My Year of Rest and Relaxation . . . Fallow's plot twists and turns, and the relationships and friendships Natalie eventually develops, demonstrate how the ethics of surrogacy are not reducible to any one of these narratives, but depend instead on the power relations that define each case."
--Anna Louie Sussman, The New Republic

"Darkly comic . . . [with] matter-of-fact hilarity."
--Joanne Kaufman, The Wall Street Journal

"[A] smart and sly send-up about the lengths capitalism will go to survey every aspect of our lives."
--Sophia June, Marie Claire

"Hilariously dark . . . an HR-approved version of The Handmaid's Tale meets My Year of Rest and Relaxation."
--Juliette Jeffers, Interview

"Anderson's debut novel is a hilariously astute satire on late-stage capitalism's deprivations and desires."
--Cory Oldweiler, The Boston Globe

"Shrewd, satirical . . . Natalie's journey with The Company, however far-fetched it may first appear, is not very far removed from our current reality at all."
--Jade Gu, Defector

"A commentary on the ways in which capitalism and our individual bodies collide and intersect . . . sly and funny."
--Traci Thomas and Scott Tong, WBUR's Here & Now

"Fallow has a singular voice. It is both elevated and accessible and hilarious in a way few novels are . . . Though it sounds dystopian it is shockingly true to our present moment."
--Michael Costaris, Michigan Quarterly Review

"A humorous send-up of contemporary corporate culture and examination of motherhood . . . Anderson has a strong sense of narrative pace with the correct comedic beats to deliver prose that is both readable and entertaining . . . The book is not speculative fiction. Everything that does happen could be happening right now."
--Ian MacAllen, The Chicago Review of Books

"All at once a human story of a struggling, imperfect, funny protagonist just trying to navigate society, and a poignant reflection on what that society asks of us--and what control we have to offer it something different."
--Eshani Surya, Debutiful

"The Handmaid's Tale meets Severance."
--Sophie Fishman, Bustle

"This is an incisive, hilarious, and unsettling send-up of corporate culture, capitalism, and greed that plays out like The Handmaid's Tale meets My Year of Rest and Relaxation. I read Fallow in two breathless days, completely entranced by this young woman's search for financial freedom in a world that's determined to trap her at every turn."
--Annabel Gutterman, Amazon Books Editor's Pick

"Sarah Anderson turns this quietly dystopian setup into a sharp, funny examination of capitalism, bodily autonomy, and the corporate language of female empowerment. With plenty of bite and an unexpected amount of heart, Fallow turns corporate satire into a story of self-determination."
--Apple Books, Best of the Month Pick

"Completely unputdownable."
--Aria Aber, author of Good Girl

"Unfolding into an utterly unexpected journey, Anderson's debut novel is an engrossing commentary on workplace culture, autonomy, and late-stage capitalism. Readers of Caro Claire Burke's Yesteryear (2026) and Aisling Rawle's The Compound (2025) will enjoy the morally gray protagonist and the wry humor in a dystopian-tinged setting."
--Patricia Smith, Booklist (starred review)

"Darkly funny . . . Anderson sustains an absurd yet disturbingly realistic critique of corporate America. This dystopian tale is as sharp as it is moving."
--Publisher's Weekly

"Imagine The Handmaid's Tale, but make it pure capitalism . . . A cautionary tale about modern selfishness and efficiency, often chilling, that still manages to end hopefully."
--Kirkus Reviews

"One of the funniest writers alive . . . anyone who sat in a gray cubicle will find themselves connecting all too well with the terribly funny moments in this book."
--Debutiful

"Fallow is a spectacular debut: hilarious, sly, sharp, and extraordinarily thoughtful about the knotty philosophical issues that arise where capitalism and the body meet. Sarah Anderson is a dazzling new talent."
--Lauren Groff, author of The Vaster Wilds

"Fallow sits smartly at the axis of corporate markets and motherhood. It joins a literary tradition of women discovering who they are while their bodies evolve in astounding ways. What a joy to be in Natalie's head--a young woman who hates to work but doesn't shy away from labor. Fallow is a delightfully sharp, dynamic debut."
--Kiley Reid, author of Come and Get It

"Sarah Anderson's imaginative debut posits a world in which the corporate has almost wholly consumed the human. So disturbingly plausible it can scarcely be considered satire, Fallow is a very funny book about work and ambition, the faltering systems that dictate much of contemporary life, and the possibility of another way forward."
--Rumaan Alam, author of Entitlement

"Fallow is a sly marvel of a novel: a witty, vivacious page-turner that doubles as a wry critique of capitalism, corporate culture, and reproductive politics. Sarah Anderson's debut--a kind of gonzo Handmaid's Tale--is simply dazzling in its audacity and invention."
--Peter Ho Davies, author of A Lie Someone Told You About Yourself

"Beguiling and absurdly funny, Fallow is an unputdownable exploration of what happens when one woman's desire for financial stability and comfort meets another woman's desire for a child. A striking look at capitalism, inequality, and the commodification of our very selves, Fallow sings in so many registers and with so much heart. Sarah Anderson is a major new talent."
--Julie Buntin, author of Famous Men

About the Author