The Original Daughter: 'A book not to miss' New York Times
Jemimah Wei
May 2025 · Weidenfeld & Nicolson · Narrated by Eunice Wong
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13 hr 30 min
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'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
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
About the author
Jemimah Wei is the author of The Original Daughter. Born and raised in Singapore, she is now based between Singapore and the United States. She was a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University and Felipe P. De Alba Fellow at Columbia University, where she earned her MFA. A recipient of awards and fellowships from Singapore's National Arts Council, Sewanee Writers' Conference, Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, and Writers in Paradise, she was named one of Narrative's '30 below 30' writers and is a Francine Ringold Award for New Writers honouree. Her fiction has won the William Van Dyke Short Story Prize and appears in Guernica, Narrative and Nimrod amongst others. For close to a decade, Jemimah was a host for various broadcast and digital channels, and has written and produced short films and travel guides for Laneige, Airbnb, and Nikon. This is her first novel.
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