2096. Natural birth is on the ballot.

Cover of Birthright by Max Malterer

Birthright

If every child could be promised a better start, would you vote to end natural birth?

Grace has spent seventeen years inside a state-run ChildRise Center, raised by AI-assisted human caretakers and prepared for a future designed around certainty. She trusts the system. It has given her every reason to.

Then a banned book and a school trip take her into Natural-Born District 1 where she meets Tom, whose life is messier, warmer, and shaped by choices Grace has never been allowed to make.

When the government calls a referendum to outlaw natural birth forever, Grace's visits to Tom's world become increasingly dangerous. As friendships fracture and the Center begins watching more closely, she must decide how much safety she is willing to trade for a life of her own.

Birthright is a tense, intimate near-future novel about freedom, family, and the cost of choosing a life your world was built to prevent.

“Deeply thought-provoking, the book is filled with scenes and concepts that made me pause, reflect, and sometimes feel uncomfortable in the best possible way. The future it paints feels absurd at first glance, yet increasingly and frighteningly realistic. The kind of book that stays with you long after you turn the final page.”

— Daniel Baumann, Germany

“Birthright is an intimate, daring, and chillingly honest story about the cost of perfection. Just when I thought I understood where the story was going, the plot twist left me on the edge of my seat.”

— Adriana Villar, Colombia

“A heartrending story about survival, freedom, and human connection. Birthright’s dilemmas shake the foundations of our moral assumptions and value systems.”

— Rosalee Edwards, UK

Listen to Birthright.

The audiobook is available on Spotify and other platforms including Everand, B&N, Rakuten, Audiobooks.com, TuneIn, Bibliotheca, and OverDrive.

It is narrated by a digital voice clone of professional voice actor Jessica Anne Bogart.

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Bring the referendum to your book club.

Would you ban natural birth if every child could be promised a better start? Download the spoiler-filled guide for questions about choice, family, progress, and who gets to define a good life.

Read the guide →