'Fascinating … the most intimate and vulnerable choices a person can make' Leah Sargeant

'One of the biggest questions facing modern civilization: whether and how its next generation will come to be' Christine Emba

For generations, starting a family was an ordinary part of life. But today, there’s a marked gap between how many children people want to have and how many they actually will, if they have any at all. In this era of opportunity for women, soaring inequality, and a changing climate, who gets to have kids, and why?

Spurred by the unexpected obstacles she encountered in her own quest to become a parent, journalist Anna Louie Sussman explores what is keeping us from having the families we desire, as birth rates plummet around the world. From romance to education to work, Sussman shows how decades of policy choices have elevated profits over people and individualism over interdependence, and have left people increasingly unable to envision a future in which they have children. From South Korea to Denmark, America to Poland, the stories she uncovers illustrate the deep personal and collective cost when such a fundamental human experience falls so far out of reach.

A singular and timely investigation into how parenthood has been altered by a capitalist system run wild, this is a must-read for anyone seeking to understand the universal challenges and triumphs of becoming a parent in our uncertain age.