Somebody's Daughter: A Memoir - Hardcover

Ford, Ashley C.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1250305977 ISBN 13: 9781250305978

Publisher: Flatiron Books: An Oprah Book, 2021

Synopsis

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
NBCC John Leonard Prize Finalist
Indie Bestseller

“This is a book people will be talking about forever.” ―Glennon Doyle, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Untamed

“Ford’s wrenchingly brilliant memoir is truly a classic in the making. The writing is so richly observed and so suffused with love and yearning that I kept forgetting to breathe while reading it.” ―John Green, #1 New York Times bestselling author

One of the most prominent voices of her generation debuts with an extraordinarily powerful memoir: the story of a childhood defined by the looming absence of her incarcerated father.

Through poverty, adolescence, and a fraught relationship with her mother, Ashley C. Ford wishes she could turn to her father for hope and encouragement. There are just a few problems: he’s in prison, and she doesn’t know what he did to end up there. She doesn’t know how to deal with the incessant worries that keep her up at night, or how to handle the changes in her body that draw unwanted attention from men. In her search for unconditional love, Ashley begins dating a boy her mother hates. When the relationship turns sour, he assaults her. Still reeling from the rape, which she keeps secret from her family, Ashley desperately searches for meaning in the chaos. Then, her grandmother reveals the truth about her father’s incarceration . . . and Ashley’s entire world is turned upside down.

Somebody’s Daughter steps into the world of growing up a poor Black girl in Indiana with a family fragmented by incarceration, exploring how isolating and complex such a childhood can be. As Ashley battles her body and her environment, she embarks on a powerful journey to find the threads between who she is and what she was born into, and the complicated familial love that often binds them.

About this title

About the Author

Ashley C. Ford is a writer, host, and educator who lives in Indianapolis, Indiana with her husband, poet and fiction writer Kelly Stacy, and their chocolate lab Astro Renegade Ford-Stacy. Ford is the former host of The Chronicles of Now podcast, co-host of The HBO companion podcast Lovecraft Country Radio, seasons one & three of MasterCard’s Fortune Favors The Bold, as well as the video interview series PROFILE by BuzzFeed News, and Brooklyn-based news & culture TV show, 112BK.

She was also the host of the first season of Audible's literary interview series, Authorized. She has been named among Forbes Magazine's 30 Under 30 in Media (2017), Brooklyn Magazine's Brooklyn 100 (2016), Time Out New York's New Yorkers of The Year (2017), and Variety’s New Power of New York (2019).

Reviews

This memoir opens with Ford, who is Black, learning that her father was being released after more than 20 years in prison. From there the time line reverts to Ford's earliest memory, at four years old, and proceeds chronologically. Her childhood was dominated by a contentious relationship with a mother who, at her best, is loving and supportive and, at her worst, loud, angry, and abusive. Ford learned that a cousin was sexually assaulted by another family member and later became the victim of rape herself. Her inner turmoil only grows when she finds out that her father raped two women. In high school, Ford met Brett, her first boyfriend, with whom she experienced love and a consensual, healthy relationship. She began to consider college a real possibility and made it to Ball State. There she finally experienced a stable living situation, until her relationship with Brett imploded in an unexpected fashion. In spite of this, she perseveres. Ford writes her story in a genuine and nonjudgmental way. It would be easy to blame those in her life who wronged her, yet she presents every person as a well-rounded individual with positive attributes in addition to their flaws. The story is ultimately positive-a story of resiliency, and reconciliation. VERDICT This quietly moving memoir's frank discussions of family and forgiveness make it an essential purchase for teens mature enough to tackle the subject matter.-Mary Kamela, Kenmore West High Sch., Buffalo, NYα(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Edition details

• Publisher: Flatiron Books: An Oprah Book
• Publication date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1250305977
• ISBN 13: 9781250305978
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224