The Original Daughter: A GMA Book Club Pick

A Novel

By: Jemimah Wei

Narrated by: Eunice Wong

A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK • LONGLISTED FOR THE DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD • ONE OF ELLE'S BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR

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.

Disappointing

Very disappointing…main character is not at all likeable. Depressing read…nothing uplifting or enjoyable about this book.

Pointless

This was a long torturous story. The main character was tedious. The ending unsatisfactory. I get the impression we were trying to be taught a lesson in life about love and wasted time and choices. I had to kill myself to read it to end.

Tedious

Interesting sister relationship but too much for me. I stuck through it but tempted to quit, getting bored.

Original Daughter

Narrator spoke too softly and with little emotion however l did enjoy the story and would recommend

It’s a very deep read.

I enjoyed the book overall you are hoping that she gets the lesson before it is too late every page you just hoping and hoping.