First Lines Friday is a weekly feature for book lovers created by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines? Here’s how to join in:
- Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page.
- Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first.
- Finally… reveal the book!
It’s been quite a while — over a month — since I last did a FLF post… but this book sounded too bonkers not to share!
Today’s line are from a book released this fall — and I’m just waiting for my library hold to come in:
The problem was that I’d never held a job with dental insurance. The problem was that I didn’t want one. The problem was ancient. The problem was teeth. The problem was urgent. The problem was money. The problem was that I hate to work and I always have.
So what’s the book?
Fallow by Sarah Anderson
Release date: September 15, 2026
324 pages
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.
This book was not on my radar at all until I stumbled across a review for it… and the synopsis really caught my attention. I hope it’s as good as it sounds! This book has been described as a dark comedy. Can’t wait to give it a try!
Happy Friday! Wishing everyone a great weekend!
“Jeanette, tell me that you want to live. Yesterday I looked at photos of you as a child. Salt-soaked, sand-breaded, gap-toothed, and smiling at the edge of the ocean, my only daughter.”
Of Women and Salt by Gabriela Garcia, my next read. Fallow sounds good. I love the cover!
I can see why you wanted to feature it, what a great opening line! This sounds very quirky, I can’t wait to hear more!