The baby business is booming. Billions of dollars are spent each year on strollers, cribs, and clothing, not to mention assisted reproduction and adoption. With fertility rates dropping precipitously in the US and babies becoming ever more valuable as a combination of status symbol and perfect accessory, there's clearly a developing market for someone like Tom Starbird. Tom is The Baby Merchant

--though he'd never think of himself in such terms. In his mind, Tom creates perfect families by matching famous couples with prime--but neglected--newborns. Tom's a master of surveillance and secret "pickups". His small staff is extremely well-paid, especially the doctor who implants the government-required tracking chip into each infant's developing skull.

Sasha Egan is a talented artist feeling trapped by an accidental pregnancy. Determined to place her child with a loving family, Sasha is jolted by the arrival, at her chosen home for unwed mothers, of the unborn baby's father. Behind Gary's insincere protestations of love, Sasha detects the hand of her powerful, wealthy grandmother. Nearly nine months pregnant, Sasha disappears, going to ground at a seedy motel.

Jake Zorn is a crusading TV journalist who has broken some of the biggest scandals of the day. His life is perfect--except that he and his rainmaker attorney wife, Maury, cannot have children. They've tried everything; repeated miscarriages drove Maury to a terrible act that makes adoption agencies turn them away.

Tom Starbird is Jake's last chance, but it's too late--Tom wants out of the baby business. Jake Zorn knows more than a few hard truths about Tom Starbird, and he's not afraid to expose them to the nation.

Desperate to find a baby for the Zorns, Tom Starbird settles on Sasha Egan as the perfect supplier.

Soon Sasha's baby will be born. And many lives will be forever altered.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.



Praise for this book

“The Baby Merchant is a thriller about the horrors of pregnancy that can stand beside Levin's Rosemary's Baby and Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. Kit Reed supposes a near future in which children have replaced real estate as the next hot commodity. It's one helluva hell-on-earth.” —Thomas M. Disch

“Kit Reed's work freaks me out. The Baby Merchant is whip-smart and thoughtful, nervy and nervewracking, and it keeps me up until late, wanting to know how it turns out and begging to know how she does it. Then, in the morning, I blearily wander the streets, forcing total strangers to read her so they can be freaked out too. Don't make me come to your town.” —Daniel Handler

“Now I know why we emerged from the caves into the light, discovered the wheel, and lit the first fires: to become a species that would produce Kit Reed; so that Ms. Reed would write The Baby Merchant. What a long, wearying, but worthwhile trip it has been.” —Harlan Ellison

“A smart, twisty thriller in a future far too easy to imagine. The merchant himself, Kit Reed's Tom Starbird, is the deep, dark center of the book and, like Highsmith's Tom Ripley, is someone I will remember for a long, long time.” —Karen Joy Fowler, author of The Jane Austen Book Club on The Baby Merchant

“A heart-felt, heart-stopping novel ripped from tomorrow's headlines, The Baby Merchant explodes our national obsessions with celebrity, children, and cold hard cash.” —Elizabeth Hand, author of Mortal Love

“A clever what-if, Reed's tale is provocative as well as amusing.” —People on Thinner Than Thou

“Health clubs replace houses of worship in Kit Reed's not-so-science-fiction novel Thinner Than Thou.” —Vanity Fair

“A timely, witty page-turner which tells us the truth about ourselves and our society while making us laugh aloud. Reed remains one of the most cheerful and accurate of modern social observers.” —Michael Moorcock on Thinner Than Thou




About the AuthorKit Reed (1932-2017) is the author of the Alex Award-winning Thinner Than Thou and many other novels, including The Night Children, her first young adult work. Reed has been nominated for the World Fantasy Award and has been a James W. Tiptree Award finalist. Kit Reed lived in Middletown, CT, and was Resident Writer at Wesleyan University.
Title: The Baby Merchant
Author(s): Kit Reed
ISBN: 9781466827257
Copyright 2007
Release Date: September 04, 2007
Publisher: Tor Publishing Group
Countries: United States, Canada | Learn more about available countries
Language: English
Format: ePub,mobi | Learn More about our supported formats
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