Hey, it's NPR's book of the day. I'm Andrew Limbong. The power dynamics of paying for sex

can be hard to pin down. You know, who's on top, who's in control can change in an instant.

Celine St. Clair's debut novel, Sugar Baby, does dig into that relationship. It's about a young

girl named Agnes who starts hanging out with

older rich guys in exchange for money. But the book also explores a relationship that's,

you know, arguably a bit more tenuous, which is friendships with people in a different tax

bracket. She spoke with NPR's Isabella Gomez-Armiento about that and why in this story there is no Prince Charming coming to Agnes's rescue.

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methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. Agnes is 21 years old, board of living

at home. She works with her immigrant mom at a house

cleaning business in a small town outside of London, and she only has one close friend who's either

away at college or on some fabulous backpacking trip across Thailand. But when the protagonist

of Celine St. Clair's debut novel has a chance encounter with the posh daughter of one of her

cleaning clients, she jumps headfirst into a world of late-night parties, lip-filler appointments, and paid dates with powerful men.

Sugar Baby rewrites narratives about sex work in the 21st century, analyzing the role that race, class, and social media play into it all.

Celine Sinclair is the author, and she joins me now. Welcome.

Hi, Isabella. Thank you for having me on. Oh my gosh, of course. Thank you for doing this. When we first meet Agnes, she's living in a place

she calls The Wasteland. It's her hometown. Can you set the scene for me a little bit? Why do the

characters call it that? So I think it was really important for me to kind of portray a type of

...