Turkey baster lit: is this the new chick lit?

She chose his sperm because his exam scores were better than hers. Donor 8282 was also 6ft 5in tall, blond and blue-eyed. So far, so clichéd.

But what happened when 39-year-old New York Times writer Carey Goldberg ordered eight of his vials at $175 a pop is an extraordinary true story of our times. It charts the lives of three high-flying friends - all journalists and all members of the "I can't believe it - I forgot to have a baby" generation. But being scarily intelligent East Coast go-getters, they don't let a lifetime of failed relationships stand in the way of motherhood.

The penny drops for Carey when she overhears her scientist boyfriend tell a colleague he was looking for "somebody who really attracted me".

Oops. That was enough to send her marching into the arms of donor 8282, while continuing to try her luck on a dating website, where she quickly comes across and falls in love with Sprax, who, despite his unfortunate name, loves Mandelstam's poetry and is an outdoors adrenaline junkie.

We then get introduced to Carey's friend Beth Jones. After six years of marriage to a complete prat called Russell, she arrives home one night to be told: "I want a divorce and I don't want to talk about it." Russell simply hands her a sheet of paper listing the pros and cons of their marriage, including "sex not satisfying" and "incompatible spare-time activities". American men - don't you love their self-obsessed honesty?

Fortunately Beth, who teaches at Harvard, lands a divorce settlement worth $10 million. At 37, she is a rich women who only wants what money can't easily buy - a baby. So Carey, who has managed to persuade Sprax to be a father if not a husband, offers Beth the vials she no longer needs.

On then to Pam, the award-winning Washington Post journalist who recently met Carey at a cemetery tour of New England Spiritualists (is it any wonder these women are childless?). Most of the men she knows through work are editors or criminals, so she resorts to a multitude of losers on JDate.com before meeting Adam, "a nice Jewish boy" who turns out to be not so nice. One day she finds a note he's written to himself saying: "Pam may not be the most beautiful girl but she has a good heart." Adam gets the push and you can guess where the increasingly broody Pam is heading.

Three Wishes is a perfect girlie page-turner for Londoners with loud biological clocks, packed with hilarious and tragic anecdotes, plus lots of gynaecological detail. A big hit in America, the film rights have been sold to the company that made The Kids Are Alright, the lesbian film starring Annette Bening and Julianne Moore.

"Turkey basters" could well become a new film and literary genre but I was left wondering what became of Donor 8282 and his nine children. Now that's a truly great real life story waiting to be written.