SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOLLINGER EVERYMAN WODEHOUSE PRIZE 2021 '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.