The Original Daughter
'A book not to miss' New York Times
-
- £7.99
Publisher Description
'Precise, layered and moving, The Original Daughter is a book not to miss' NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
WHO WOULD YOU SACRIFICE AT THE ALTAR OF AMBITION? A dazzling story of ambition and sisterhood in turn-of-the-millennium Singapore by National Book Award '5 Under 35' honouree Jemimah Wei?
'I cannot put this damn book down' ROXANE GAY
'Wise and wonderful' PAUL BEATTY
'Thrilling . . . so much the real deal' KAVEH AKBAR
'Seismic' JONATHAN ESCOFFERY
Singapore, 1996. Before Arin, Genevieve Yang was an only child. Living with her parents and grandmother in a single-room flat in Bedok, she is saddled with an unexpected sibling when Arin appears, the shameful legacy of a grandfather long believed to be dead.
At once collaborators and sisters, Gen and Arin grow up inseparable, navigating the intensity of life in working-class Singapore - where urgent insistence on achievement demands self-immolation in the realms of imagination, work, and play. But as the rapidly modernising, winner-takes-all world threatens to leave one behind as the other's star rises exponentially, the sisters must weigh their allegiances and bonds, the cost of success and ultimately reckon with who they've become. What results is a story that cracks open the fault lines of Singaporean society, our desperate need for acceptance and our yearning to be loved.
Vivid and visceral, The Original Daughter is a breathtaking act of empathy by a new literary star.
'A tour de force that I'll never forget' QIAN JULIE WANG
'I read in a fever' EMILY ITAMI
'Heartfelt and meticulously written' SHARLENE TEO
'A true literary talent' TASH AW
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Wei debuts with a sensitive if occasionally overwritten portrait of two sisters as they come of age in 1990s Singapore. Gen is an only child until age eight, when her family takes in seven-year-old Arin under scandalous circumstances. It turns out Gen's grandfather had not in fact been politically exiled from Singapore decades earlier; instead, he'd secretly established a second family in Malaysia. Now, having fallen on hard times, his Malaysian son begs Gen's family to take in Arin, his youngest daughter. Initially fearful and standoffish, Arin eventually becomes part of the family, and the girls cement their sisterly bond. During adolescence, Gen buckles under the crushing pressure of the Singaporean academic system and auditions for hosting shows on a local YouTube channel, while Arin, who excels academically, lands a gig on a YouTube gaming show. The dual timeline narrative shuffles from their childhood to 2015, when Gen reveals and reflects on their legacy of betrayals. Though a middle section chronicling Gen's faltering attempts at adulting feels somewhat extraneous, the novel regains its footing in the closing chapters as the sisters contend with their rupture, Throughout, Wei treats their complex bond with humor and pathos. The result is a remarkably nuanced exploration of sisterhood and its limits.
