“Glorious. . . Revelatory. . . A tragic, haunting exercise in the limitations of not-quite unconditional love. . . First-time novelist Jemimah Wei poignantly, affectingly observes an extended family that sunders from dysfunction and betrayals in The Original Daughter.”
— Shelf Awareness
“Jemimah Wei’s debut The Original Daughter goes for all the big stuff: ambition, time, family, forgiveness, constructing the self. Thrilling, to find a new author with an appetite for the whole spectrum of living, and the skill to get it down true. A contract of sisterhood is signed, then life, then ambition, then disappointment and heartbreak and and and. Wei’s prose is delicious, propulsively hurdling us through the lives of Gen and Arin, who will live in my marrow forever. The Original Daughter is so much the real deal.”
—Kaveh Akbar, bestselling author of the National Book Award nominee Martyr!
“A beautifully crafted exploration of family, identity, and the complexities of cultural expectations. Wei is a talented, indelible writer with much to offer to a world that is in desperate need of saving.”
—Morgan Talty, national bestselling author of Night of the Living Rez and Fire Exit
“Fiery, funny, and incisive, The Original Daughter is at its core a ghost story. Once, invisibility was the hallmark of the working class, but Jemimah Wei knows in today’s world, where an internet connection allows one to walk through walls, be seen, disappear, and haunt from beyond the analog grave, a soulless transparency is power. A societal privilege ironically afforded to most everyone. This novel adroitly, yet playfully, turns the ways we see cultural appropriation, nepotism, and identity upside down. What a wise and wonderful read.”
—Paul Beatty, author of The Sellout
“Utterly engrossing….elegantly composed…I loved this almost claustrophobic novel about the ways unrealized ambition can turn everything someone holds dear to rot…I cannot put this damn book down.”
—Roxane Gay, author of Hunger
“From the very first page, The Original Daughter consumed me. I soared when Gen’s and Arin’s dreams came alive; I crashed when heartache wrenched them. With rare wisdom, Jemimah Wei examines the remains of our need to belong and be loved when we chase ambition above all else. Her writing is so incisive and visceral that I did not simply read The Original Daughter; I lived it. This astonishing debut is a tour de force that I’ll never forget.”
—Qian Julie Wang, New York Times bestselling author of Beautiful Country
“I laughed, I wept, I called my mom. Instantly and utterly enchanting, reading The Original Daughter felt analogous to being a child again, pushing off real life just so I could stay in the warmth of its pages a second longer. This story of a family and its struggle for freedom, intimacy, and survival asks not just what it means to love, but love well, especially in a world where our relationships can both bond and break us. Jemimah Wei chronicles the eviscerating experience of living under the fracture of modern society with devastating care. Seismic.”
—Jonathan Escoffery, Booker Prize nominee and bestselling author of If I Survive You
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