Somebody's Daughter: A Memoir

Ashley C. Ford (Author)
Pre-Order   Ships Jun 01, 2021
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Description

"Sure to be one of the best memoirs of 2021." --Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"So clear, sharp, and smooth that the reader sees, in vivid focus, Ford's complicated childhood, brilliant mind, and golden heart. Ford is a writer for the ages, and Somebody's Daughter will be a book of the year." --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 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.

Product Details

Price
$27.99  $25.75
Publisher
Flatiron Books: An Oprah Book
Publish Date
June 01, 2021
Pages
224
Language
English
Type
Hardcover
EAN/UPC
9781250305978

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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

Buzzfeed 75 Books to Add to Your 2021 TBR List
Ashley Ford's much-awaited memoir chronicles her complicated relationship with her father...expect a deeply moving, nuanced story

Time The 21 Most Anticipated Books of 2021
Layering in the complexities of her relationship with her mother, her changing body and a boyfriend who grows abusive, Ford offers a heart-wrenching coming-of-age story

Elle 55 Books to Read in 2021
In this beautiful, delicate memoir, writer Ashley C. Ford recounts a childhood defined by her incarcerated father's absence...and she starts a journey toward true and powerful selfhood.

LitHub Lit Hub's Most Anticipated Books of 2021
Expect to see SOMEBODY'S DAUGHTER make waves this year.

Cosmopolitan These New Books Coming Out in 2021 Are Guaranteed to Make Your Reading List
Her coming-of-age story gets at how to both acknowledge and break away from what we're born into.

Garden and Gun Top of 2021 Reading List for Southerners
Ashley C. Ford writes with lyrical vulnerability...Her most powerful personal essays have delved into her girlhood, race, incarceration, poverty, and family ties--themes she expands on in this recollection of her childhood and her father's imprisonment.

Electric Literature 43 Books by Women of Color to Read in 2021
Her writing shines with extraordinary insight and grace, and Somebody's Daughter is a book so many of you will want to read.

SheThePeople Non-Fiction Books 2021: 27 Authors to Watch Out For
As Ashley battles her body and her environment, she provides a poignant coming-of-age recollection that speaks to finding the threads between who you are and what you were born into, and the complicated familial love that often binds them.

Boston.com 21 Books to Look Out For in 2021, According to Local Experts
I think it's going to resonate with so many young girls of color who grew up in this kind of adversity and how you can come up out of that.

Lebanon-Express (OR) Most Anticipated 2021 Books
Ashley C. Ford, a journalist and host of the "Chronicles of Now" podcast, makes her much-buzzed book debut with an intensely personal story: her relationship with her incarcerated father.

Ashley Ford's prose is glass--so clear, sharp and smooth that the reader sees, in vivid focus, her complicated childhood, brilliant mind, and golden heart. The gravity and urgency of SOMEBODY'S DAUGHTER anchored me to my chair and slowed my heartbeat--like no book has since Toni Morrison's THE BLUEST EYE. Ashley Ford is a writer for the ages, and SOMEBODY'S DAUGHTER will be a book of the year. - Glennon Doyle, author of #1 New York Times bestseller Untamed and founder of Together Rising
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