‘Terrifyingly entertaining.’ Kelly Link
‘Masterful.’ Washington Post
”Alice in Wonderland set in the gig economy.’ New York Times
‘What is this?’ Los Angeles Times
Shortlisted for the Center for Fiction’s 2020 First Novel Prize

18 boyfriends. 23 jobs. One ghost who occasionally pops in to give advice. Welcome to the world of the Temporary.

‘There is nothing more personal than doing your job’. So goes the motto of the Temporary, as she takes job after job, in search of steadiness, belonging, and something to call her own. Aided by her bespoke agency and a cast of boyfriends – each allotted their own task (the handy boyfriend, the culinary boyfriend, the real estate boyfriend) – she is happy to fill in for any of us: for the Chairman of the Board, a ghost, a murderer, a mother. Even for you, and for me.

Wild, hopeful, infinitely sad and infinitely funny, Temporary is the smartest, most humane story of what it is to work and live, here and now.