The Original Daughter: A GMA Book Club Pick: A Novel

A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK • COUNTRY AWARD WINNER OF THE CHOMMANARD INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S LITERARY AWARD • LONGLISTED FOR THE DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD • SHORTLISTED FOR THE SINGAPORE LITERATURE PRIZE • ONE OF ELLE'S BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR

In this dazzling debut, Jemimah Wei explores the tumultuous nature of family bonds in a story of ambition and sisterhood in turn-of-the-millennium Singapore.

“Precise, layered and moving, The Original Daughter is a book not to miss.” –The New York Times Book Review

Before Arin, Genevieve Yang was an only child. Living with her parents and grandmother in a single-room flat inworking-class Singapore, Genevieve is saddled with an unexpected sibling when Arin appears as the shameful legacy of a grandfather long believed to be dead. As the girls grow closer, they must navigate the intensity of life in a brutally competitive place where insistence on achievement demands constant sacrifice. The sisters become inextricably bound as they spurn outside friendships, leisure, and any semblance of a social life in pursuit of academic perfection and passage to a better future.

When a stinging betrayal violently estranges the sisters, Genevieve must weigh the value of ambition versus familial love, home versus the outside world, and allegiance to herself versus allegiance to the people who made her who she is. In this story of a family and its contention with the roiling changes of our rapidly modernizing, winner-take-all world, The Original Daughter is a major work of modern literature, imbued with equal parts emotional clarity and searing social insight.

JEMIMAH WEI was born and raised in Singapore and splits her time between Singapore and the United States. She is a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 Honoree, is a winner of the William Van Dyke Short Story Prize, and formerly held the Wallace Stegner Fellowship and Felipe P. De Alba Fellowship at Stanford University and Columbia University, respectively. Her highly anticipated debut novel, The Original Daughter, debuted at #1 on The Straits Times bestseller list and is a Good Morning America Book Club pick and a New York Times Editors’ Choice. The Original Daughter is a Country Award Winner of the Chommanard International Women's Literary Award, was longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award, and was named a Best Book of Spring by TIME, Harper’s Bazaar, Elle, Vogue, and more.  

https://jemmawei.com/