Ashley C Ford

"Ford is a writer for the ages, and Somebody's Daughter will be a book of the year" - Glennon Doyle "Truly a classic in the making" - John Green An Oprah book From one of the most powerful voices of her generation: the story of a childhood defined by race, poverty and a father in prison. Throughout her adolescence, Ashley Ford doesn't know how to deal with the worries that keep her up at night. If only she could turn to her father for his advice and support. But he's in prison, and she doesn't know what he did to end up there. After being raped by her ex-boyfriend, Ashley desperately searches for her sense of self. Then, her grandmother reveals the truth about her father's incarceration... and Ashley's world is turned upside down. Ashley embarks on a powerful journey to find the connections between who she is and what she was born into, discovering that, however much we might try to untether ourselves from a painful past, the ties that bind families together are the strongest ones of all. "Sure to be one of the best memoirs of 2021" - Kirkus Reviews "A heart-wrenching coming-of age story" - Time "Her coming-of-age story gets at how to both acknowledge and break away from what we're born into" - Cosmopolitan "A beautiful, delicate memoir... a journey toward true and powerful selfhood" - Elle

The International Bestseller and an Amazon.com book of 2021

Somebody's Daughter

Morgan Wilson 

Lizeth Esmeralda

When she said that thing to me, that I could always come home, part of me wanted to reply, “Mama, I love you, but I’ll work myself past the white meat, down to the bone, and fistfight every stranger I run across on the street before we live under the same roof again.”

I was confused. I didn’t know how to be the child my mother wanted me to be. 

The library felt to good to be true. All those books, on all those shelves, and I could just pluck them out, one by one, find an empty chair, and read, and read, and read… My imagination had already taken me on a million wild rides, but here was unlimited adventure. For the rest of my life, I would seek out the library the way some search for the soft light of a chapel in the dark. 

Kids can always tell the difference between adults who want to empower them, and adults who want to overpower them. 

We didn't know, back then, there are about a million ways to love and be loved by another person. We thought what we had, the way we had it, was the only way it could be. We were stuck.

When you don’t grow up with a certain kind of affection, even if you know you’re worthy of it, it can be hard to accept in adulthood. 

I knew I was lucky to have so many people rooting for me, good people …but sometimes my feelings of unworthiness crept in. A part of me was ashamed that I’d gotten my version of “it all”, and felt compelled to smash it under my heel… It made me angry. I didn’t want to be sad, I didn’t want to be anxious

Amelia

Up until my grandmother died, I’d just accepted the way things were, resigned to my role as the member of my family no one quite understood. It had been enough, maybe even part of the fuel that kept me going in the warped way these things do sometimes, but now, I wanted more. I wanted their closeness. I wanted to start over, and let them see me as I am. I wanted to trust them. I wanted us to be as we are, people who love each other. I had a life and a home in New York with Kelly, but in so many ways, I'd abandoned my home here in Indiana. It didn't have to be this way. However complicated, I could exist in both, as me, fully me. I could be strong enough, because I had to be--if I didn't want to lose this. And I knew I didnt.

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