Touch

A trend forecaster (which is pretty much what it sounds like) gets hired to work for a big name capitalist and is fully immersed in the world of the digital. After several leaps and bounds and twists in the plot, her life takes an unexpected and welcome return to the physical, a compelling and interesting read for our modern times. Like the protagonist, author Courtney Maum has worked as a trend forecaster, and the insider knowledge of what that looks like is interesting enough in its own right.  Recommended By Maya M., Powells.com

From the author of the acclaimed I Am Having So Much Fun Here Without You, a satirical and moving novel in the spirit of Maria Semple and Jess Walter about a New York City trend forecaster who finds herself wanting to overturn her own predictions, move away from technology, and reclaim her heart.

Sloane Jacobsen is one of the world’s most powerful trend forecasters (she was the foreseer of "the swipe"), and global fashion, lifestyle, and tech companies pay to hear her opinions about the future. Her recent forecasts on the family are unwavering: the world is over-populated, and with unemployment, college costs, and food prices all on the rise, having children is an extravagant indulgence.

So it’s no surprise when the tech giant Mammoth hires Sloane to lead their groundbreaking annual conference, celebrating the voluntarily childless. But not far into her contract, Sloane begins to sense the undeniable signs of a movement against electronics that will see people embracing compassion, empathy, and "in-personism" again. She’s struggling with the fact that her predictions are hopelessly out of sync with her employer’s mission and that her closest personal relationship is with her self-driving car when her partner, the French "neo-sensualist" Roman Bellard, reveals that he is about to publish an op-ed on the death of penetrative sex — a post-sexual treatise that instantly goes viral. Despite the risks to her professional reputation, Sloane is nevertheless convinced that her instincts are the right ones, and goes on a quest to defend real life human interaction, while finally allowing in the love and connectedness she’s long been denying herself.

A poignant and amusing call to arms that showcases her signature biting wit and keen eye, celebrated novelist Courtney Maum’s new book is a moving investigation into what it means to be an individual in a globalized world.

"Maum perfectly captures the zeitgeist of our era as technology battles with humanity. Her thought-provoking, humorous book will inspire readers to forgo the electronics and get back to basics as simple as human touch." Library Journal

"[A] trenchant satirical novel…Maum has such an incisive grasp of where tech and culture meet that she could add sociologist to her resume….A perceptive, thought-provoking read." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

"In a work of zealous social critique laced with sexy romantic comedy…Maum’s incisive, charming, and funny novel ebulliently champions the healing powers of touch, the living world, and love in all its crazy risks, surprises, and sustaining radiance." Booklist (Starred Review)

"Our modern world is at once hyper-connected and hyper-alienating, and in this magical/terrible time, Courtney Maum’s latest novel offers us a balm, a solution, a call to action, or, at the very least, time away from our smartphones to read a compelling, perceptive, and moving story about the state of human intimacy and love in our contemporary era. Touch is at once wry and sincere, funny and serious, and you won’t be able to put it down." Edan Lepucki, author of California

"Sweet and funny....A sharp yet feeling satire, Touch bristles with insights into the longing for warm, messy, inefficient, and imperfect human life buried in our increasingly streamlined, disembodied now." Interview

Courtney Maum is the author of the novel I Am Having So Much Fun Here Without You and the chapbook "Notes from Mexico." Her short fiction, book reviews, and essays on the writing life have been widely published in outlets such as The New York Times, Tin House, Electric Literature, and Buzzfeed, and she has co-written films that have debuted at Sundance and won awards at Cannes. At various points in her life, she has been a trend forecaster, a fashion publicist, and a party promoter for Corona Extra. She currently works as a product namer for M·A·C cosmetics from her home in Litchfield County, CT.