Synopses & Reviews
Among careerists who postpone parenthood, fertility problems abound. Adoptions have always been difficult and now America's borders have been closed by the Centers for Disease Control. Babies are high end commodities in this economy, microchipped at birth to protect them from theft.
Tom Starbird rescues "unwanted" babies--but he's tired of meeting wealthy would-be parents' demands for "perfect" children. Tom is shutting up shop when Jake Zorn, the Television Conscience of Boston, blackmails him into doing one more job.
Desperate to find one last perfect baby, Tom finds the lovely and very pregnant Sasha Egan. Stalked by her unborn child's father, on the run--Tom guesses she will be glad to be rid of her burden. Neither he nor Sasha could predict that the baby she never wanted is the one thing in her life she will do anything to keep.
Review
"Reed, a fierce thinker, is poking at the soft spot of our national anxiety about every aspect of making babies and raising children."--
The Washington Post BookWorld on
The Baby Merchant
"Reed skillfully evokes the pain of couples aching for a baby, the host-like sensation of pregnancy, and the fierce love evoked by newborns. She also considers the deep scars that result from withheld affection. She explores the connection between creativity and motherhood, the tension between career and family, and the powerful pull of blood and wealth."--The Philadelphia Inquirer on The Baby Merchant
"The Baby Merchant is first and last a smart, sometimes startling thriller, graced with an interesting bad guy and with Sasha, whose metamorphosis from self-absorbed student to panicky single mom to avenging mother tiger powers the story."--St. Petersburg Times
"Kit Reed has a knack for striking upon hot-button topics and probing them from odd, illuminating angles. When you combine her flair for fast-paced and intricate plotting with this ability to dig deep inside her protagonists, you are guaranteed novels that demand rapid devouring yet release time-capsules of moral, intellectual and ethical ambiguity. This latest book is no exception."--Paul Di Filippo, Scifi.com on The Baby Merchant
About the Author
Kit Reed is the author of the Alex Award-winning Thinner Than Thou. Reed has been nominated for the World Fantasy Award and collections of her short fiction have been finalists for the James W. Tiptree Award. She lives in Middletown, CT, and teaches at Wesleyan University.