Augustine Cerf

A compelling, unusual and excellent novel, beautifully balancing ambiguity and warmth

A darkly funny novel of dangerous choices, and a brilliant study of human nature. I loved it.

Wonderful, addictive, and devastating, Compensation will gut you with a description of loss, and have you laughing seconds later. It’s a mad, uniquely brilliant novel, sweet and cutting in the same breath. Reading this book is like overhearing the wildest, most scintillating conversation of your life — you’ll never want to turn away. Absolute banger

Equal parts beautiful and bonkers, Compensation is an exhilarating joyride through the madness of grief and the gift of loving

It is just as well that obsession is at the core of this keenly observed novel because I became entirely consumed by it, reading late into the night, almost desperately. It is a distorted, thrilling, uncomfortable love story that is absolutely beautifully written, tender and ugly, funny and horrifying. Both unexpected and inevitable, like skidding on black ice, I was hooked by the plot and completely at its mercy as it gathered momentum. It is droll and sharp, with a remarkable command of voice. Augustine Cerf is one to watch.

Emma van Straaten, author of This Immaculate Body

Absolutely brilliant. I loved this novel about how corruptive a mother’s love can be. Deliciously dark, and also incredibly tender, Cerf draws parallels between surrogacy and immigration, raises questions about ownership, embodiment, and belonging, and takes an unflinching look at how grief can become monstrous. Finally, we have a modern successor to Frankenstein

Ling Ling Huang, author of Natural Beauty

A daring, hilarious, and profound ode to family, dysfunction, and what it means to belong to a person and a place. I was enthralled from the first page by these one-of-a-kind characters, their delusions and desires, and the bizarre and yet strangely human circumstances they find themselves in. I have never read a book about pregnancy, parenthood, wealth, and immigration status that handles each of these things with the equal care and nuance that Cerf commands. I found myself laughing, crying, rooting for characters and outcomes I never expected, and shocked by the ultimate twist that I did not see coming. Compensation is a glorious novel that is as beautifully written as it is impossible to put down, a combination that requires a uniquely deft hand.

Georges is dead. Charlotte’s live-at-home, darling son took a blow to his head while out drinking, and she had to find him, still wearing last night’s clothes, lying on top of his sheets. He was only thirty-four. 
 
Left with only her philanderer, porn-addicted husband Erik for company, Charlotte desperately casts around for a way – any way – through her immeasurable grief. 
 
Erik, a surgeon, will remove their dead son’s sperm, and a surrogate will bring his baby into the world. The couple turn to Lena, their undocumented cleaner who has big dreams of her own. And as the once-established power dynamics begin to shift between the trio, desperation and guilt will push all three to their limits. 
 
Fearless, biting, and darkly funny, Compensation is an intoxicating story about delusion, domesticity, and above all, love: the strange shapes it can twist us into, what we’ll justify in its name, the tragedy of being bad at it, and the beauty of loving easily and generously.

Augustine Cerf

Praise for Compensation

A compelling, unusual and excellent novel, beautifully balancing ambiguity and warmth

A darkly funny novel of dangerous choices, and a brilliant study of human nature. I loved it.

Wonderful, addictive, and devastating, Compensation will gut you with a description of loss, and have you laughing seconds later. It’s a mad, uniquely brilliant novel, sweet and cutting in the same breath. Re ...

A compelling, unusual and excellent novel, beautifully balancing ambiguity and warmth

A darkly funny novel of dangerous choices, and a brilliant study of human nature. I loved it.

Wonderful, addictive, and devastating, Compensation will gut you with a description of loss, and have you laughing seconds later. It’s a mad, uniquely brilliant novel, sweet and cutting in the same breath. Re ...

A compelling, unusual and excellent novel, beautifully balancing ambiguity and warmth

A darkly funny novel of dangerous choices, and a brilliant study of human nature. I loved it.

Wonderful, addictive, and devastating, Compensation will gut you with a description of loss, and have you laughing seconds later. It’s a mad, uniquely brilliant novel, sweet and cutting in the same breath. Re ...

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