Touch

Touch

Courtney Maum

Pub: June 6, 2017

G.P. Putnam's Sons

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Sloane Jacobsen is the most powerful trend forecaster in the world (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 an- nual conference, celebrating the voluntarily childless. But not far into her contract, Sloane begins to sense the undeniable signs of a move- ment 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 in- stincts are the right ones, and goes on a quest to defend real life hu- man interaction, while nally 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 nov- elist Courtney Maum’s new book is a moving investigation into what it means to be an individual in a globalized world.