Doubleday Books
The Original Daughter: A GMA Book Club Pick
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A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK - In this dazzling debut, Jemimah Wei explores the formation and dissolution 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." -NYTBR
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, 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 the 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 literary debut, imbued with equal parts emotional clarity and searing social insight.
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Book Details
ISBN:
9780385551014
EAN:
9780385551014
Binding:
Hardcover
Pages:
368
Authors:
Jemimah Wei
Publisher:
Doubleday Books
Published Date: 2025-06-05
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Reading Arin and Gen’s relationship was relatable and confusing at times. The way the book ends leaves me wondering if Gen finds purpose in something, in someone, starts living for herself. The death took a lot longer than I expected and Arin’s return was uneventful, which reminds me that the original daughter was the focus anyways. I can’t wait to read something else by the author to see how her beautiful writing style tells other types of stories
Reading Arin and Gen’s relationship was relatable and confusing at times. The way the book ends leaves me wondering if Gen finds purpose in something, in someone, starts living for herself. The death took a lot longer than I expected and Arin’s return was uneventful, which reminds me that the original daughter was the focus anyways. I can’t wait to read something else by the author to see how her beautiful writing style tells other types of stories
A work of art. Didn't want to put it down, and it moved me deeply.
A work of art. Didn't want to put it down, and it moved me deeply.
I absolutely loved The Original Daughter- it’s a stunning debut that left me breathless from start to finish. Jemimah Wei masterfully explores the intense bond between sisters in a tightly wound, high‑pressure Singaporean setting. The emotions feel raw, real, and universal. Genevieve and Arin’s relationship is at once tender and tense-woven through with ambition, envy, and heartbreak and Wei writes their journey with such emotional clarity and empathy.
