The Original Daughter

A Novel

De: Jemimah Wei

Narrado por: Eunice Wong

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.

©2025 Jemimah Wei (P)2025 Random House Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

“Glorious. . . Revelatory. . . A tragic, haunting exercise in the limitations of not-quite unconditional love. . . First-time novelist Jemimah Wei poignantly, affectingly observes an extended family that sunders from dysfunction and betrayals in The Original Daughter.”—Shelf Awareness

“Jemimah Wei’s debut The Original Daughter goes for all the big stuff: ambition, time, family, forgiveness, constructing the self. Thrilling, to find a new author with an appetite for the whole spectrum of living, and the skill to get it down true. A contract of sisterhood is signed, then life, then ambition, then disappointment and heartbreak and and and. Wei’s prose is delicious, propulsively hurdling us through the lives of Gen and Arin, who will live in my marrow forever. The Original Daughter is so much the real deal.”—Kaveh Akbar, bestselling author of the National Book Award nominee Martyr!

“A beautifully crafted exploration of family, identity, and the complexities of cultural expectations. Wei is a talented, indelible writer with much to offer to a world that is in desperate need of saving.”—Morgan Talty, national bestselling author of Night of the Living Rez and Fire Exit

Well-written, unlikable characters

Beautifully written but extremely unlikable characters. Meanness, pettiness and vindictiveness permeates the entire story with no apparent character growth.

A Tale of Sisterhood and Secrets

Jemimah Wei’s The Original Daughter is a touching story about two sisters, Genevieve and Arin, trying to reconnect in Singapore. The writing is beautiful, and the setting adds charm and depth to their emotional journey.

Unlikable protagonist

From the beginning of this book, I found the main character resentful, self-destructive and often cruel. As a result, she lived mostly in misery, disappointed in others and unable to take responsibility for her poor choices. Probably one of my least favorite purchases.

Pretentious prose

I may have enjoyed the book more had I read it rather than listened to it. But the vexing, overly dramatic narration only substantiated the pretentious prose. I kept waiting for the story to become interesting, but it was a bore. There are some thought-provoking concepts and messages, but they are overshadowed by the ostentatious writing.

not worth it

torture to get to the end, boring... main character has a negative personality and attitude

Very depressing

I guess as a person who doesn’t discern everything everyone else does, or myself, I found this book tough to get through. As a positive, ambitious person, I don’t understand this type of personality. Just not my cup of tea.