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The Farm
- A Novel
- Narrated by: Fran de Leon
- Length: 13 hrs and 53 mins
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The Farm
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Publisher's Summary
National Best Seller
Life is a lucrative business, as long as you play by the rules.
Skimm Reads Pick
People Book of the Week
Belletrist Book Pick
“[Joanne] Ramos’s debut novel couldn’t be more relevant or timely.” (O: The Oprah Magazine)
Named One of the Best Books of the Year by Time • Glamour • Real Simple • Good Housekeeping • Marie Claire • Town & Country
Nestled in New York’s Hudson Valley is a luxury retreat boasting every amenity: organic meals, personal fitness trainers, daily massages - and all of it for free. In fact, you’re paid big money to stay here - more than you’ve ever dreamed of. The catch? For nine months, you cannot leave the grounds, your movements are monitored, and you are cut off from your former life while you dedicate yourself to the task of producing the perfect baby. For someone else.
Jane, an immigrant from the Philippines, is in desperate search of a better future when she commits to being a “Host” at Golden Oaks - or the Farm, as residents call it. But now pregnant, fragile, consumed with worry for her family, Jane is determined to reconnect with her life outside. Yet she cannot leave the Farm or she will lose the life-changing fee she’ll receive on the delivery of her child.
Gripping, provocative, heartbreaking, The Farm pushes to the extremes our thinking on motherhood, money, and merit and raises crucial questions about the trade-offs women will make to fortify their futures and the futures of those they love.
Nominated for the NAACP Image Award
Longlisted for The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize
Praise for The Farm
“So many factors - gender, race, religion, class - may determine where you come down on the surrogacy debate.... Ramos plays with many of these notions in her debut novel, The Farm, which imagines what might happen were surrogacy taken to its high-capitalist extreme.... The stage is set for lively book chat.” (The New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice)
“A thrilling read.” (New York)
“Grippingly realistic.” (Entertainment Weekly)
“Brilliant.” (New York Post)
“A provocative idea, and Ramos nails it.... Crisp and believable, this smart debut links the poor and the one percent in a unique transaction that turns out to be mutually rewarding.” (People)
“Wow, Joanne Ramos has written the page-turner about immigrants chasing what’s left of the American dream.... Truly unforgettable.” (Gary Shteyngart, New York Times best-selling author of Super Sad True Love Story and Lake Success)
What the critics say
“A timely investigation of how much control we really have over our own situations, especially when it comes to women’s choice.... With glimmers of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go and the dystopian eeriness of The Handmaid’s Tale, The Farm is equal parts entertaining and creepy.” (PureWow)
“The Handmaid’s Tale vibes are strong, but the ‘holy sh*t this book is genius’ vibes are stronger.” (Cosmopolitan, “The 14 Best Books Coming Out in May 2019”)
“A horror story set in a not-impossible future, this fast-paced read will keep you on the edge of your seat as it explores topical issues with page-turning plot twists.” (MindBodyGreen, “5 Books You Won’t Be Able to Put Down This May”)
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What listeners say about The Farm
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Rebecca
- 2019-11-18
Thought Provoking, But Lacked Excitement
The story was interesting, and definitely thought provoking but did not draw me in or captivate me at all. I struggled to finish, but did end up continuing to the end because I felt like I had invested too much time to not find out the ending.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Jacqueline birch
- 2019-08-21
Thought provoking
Can this ever happen in real life. To think that women are using their body to have babies for others for a large lump sum of money. To be that poor that you have to go outside your comfort zone. The women appreciated being cared for and that their families were fed.
The story was not all that interesting to me though. It dragged on. I wouldn't listen to it again.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 2019-06-29
Food for thought
Is this life that will imitate art? The Farm is a thought provoking novel that brings about different emotions as well. The idea of commodifying surrogacy and who gets to profit and make the decisions is not a far fetched thought. The women who become surrogates can be seem as empowered because they are taking control of their bodies but at the same time they are being controlled.
I did enjoy the different character perspectives. I would have liked to have a bit more clarity of the timeline of events; it was difficult to know the time because the book goes from character to character.
I look forward to see what her second book will tackle.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Melissa
- 2019-08-12
A Sprinkle of Dystopia and a Shoveling of Drama
I liked The Farm by Joanne Ramos. I was sucked in, and found it rather exciting. The premise was promising, and the writing was rather good. What was most intriguing and refreshing was that Ramos deals with the concepts of class hierarchy and race playing such a big part of the dystopian concept of farming out children for the wealthy. Where it got to be a little too much for me was when the speculative fiction took a back seat to drama, as I found it to be dialed up to the "soap opera" level.
Fran de Leon does a great job in her performance as people from several different racial backgrounds. It's easy to go overboard with accents but de Leon played them with dignity.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
- Mitch R
- 2019-07-14
Disappointing
i heard about this book on CBC's Summer Reads so I figured it was worth taking a chance on. The idea behind the story has great potential to be very captivating. Unfortunately, the suspense that was built up in the novel ended in a rather flat and unsatisfying outcome.
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1 person found this helpful