Surrender

by Jennifer Acker

A woman retreats from academic life in New York City to manage a family goat farm in New England, a novel that Richard Russo calls “splendid and provides what I crave from all vividly drawn characters worth spending time with and a richly rendered place for them to inhabit."  

Lucy Richard has enjoyed a two-decade-long, successful career in public relations in New York City when she feels compelled to move back to rural Massachusetts to try to save her father’s farm. Returning to her childhood home at age 47 is hard enough, but the difficulties multiply once she’s settled her determination to raise dairy goats and make cheese is hampered at first by her total inexperience, and then by the sudden loss of her farming mentor. To make matters worse, her husband, Michael, who followed her to the farm reluctantly and who has made a disastrous financial decision, is suddenly in severely declining health. 

Lucy finds solace in Sandy, a girlhood companion who quickly becomes more than a friend, but their new intimacy places the Richard farm in the crosshairs of Sandy’s employer, a solar energy company. How Lucy contends with the precariousness—at once financial, physical and emotional— of her new life, and with the competing passions and obligations that grow within and around her, is at the heart of this intimate drama of love and loss, of desire and friendship, and of the alluring possibilities of second acts.

Genres: Queer, Adult

323 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 14, 2026

About the author

Jennifer Acker is founder and editor in chief of The Common. Her short stories, essays, translations, and reviews have appeared in the Washington Post, Literary Hub, n+1, Guernica, The Yale Review, and Ploughshares, among other places. Acker has an MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars and teaches writing and editing at Amherst College, where she directs the Literary Publishing Internship and organizes LitFest. She lives in western Massachusetts with her husband. The Limits of the World is her debut novel.

Reviews

[Misha · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was decent but the characterisation was pretty shallow. We skip period of time, conversations, and so I was unexpectedly unengaged for most of this. The main love story also seems like a relationship that is absolutely going to fail (and honestly, should, if two people are in love but have SUCH different life goals and priorities as well as a complete failure to have any big conversations).

I did learn a lot about farms and goatkeeping, so it wasn't a total loss but I don't think I found the main story particularly engaging.

[Emily Everett · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a former farm girl, I loved being back on the farm in this novel! But I will say... come for the goats, stay for the great small-town community dynamics and incredibly well-drawn characters! Everything is done with such nuance and care - nothing feels predictable or cliche at all, which can be hard to pull off with back-to-the-farm dynamics. I loved this cast of quirky characters, loved the romance, loved the grit and beauty of farm life, and the way it manages to feel both hyper-focused on a unique situation and still comment on a lot of larger dynamics that are happening in the world right now, and not just in rural areas (health care, land development, queer life, community support, etc.). Really, really recommend this read!

[Anna Dunlap · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author says that this book is about “women in mid-life, disruption and change and the beating hearts of small towns”. She weaves the stories and the adjacent conflicts and moral choices together so well and describes the essence of small farm life so accurately. She even had me liking the goats! I had the pleasure of attending the authors book talk at one of my favorite east coast bookstores!

[Susan Welch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tremendous Tale of Hardship and Resiliance

A great story of the trade offs required to leave the corporate life and take up farming. Wonderful. Highly recommended!