The Many Daughters of Afong Moy

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

A Read with Jenna Today Show Book Club Pick!

"One of the most beautiful books of motherhood and what we pass on to those that come after us." --Jenna Bush Hager, Today

The New York Times bestselling author of the "mesmerizing and evocative" (Sara Gruen, author of Water for Elephants) Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet returns with a powerful exploration of the love that binds one family across the generations.

Dorothy Moy breaks her own heart for a living.

As Washington's former poet laureate, that's how she describes channeling her dissociative episodes and mental health struggles into her art. But when her five-year-old daughter exhibits similar behavior and begins remembering things from the lives of their ancestors, Dorothy believes the past has truly come to haunt her. Fearing that her child is predestined to endure the same debilitating depression that has marked her own life, Dorothy seeks radical help.

Through an experimental treatment designed to mitigate inherited trauma, Dorothy intimately connects with past generations of women in her family: Faye Moy, a nurse in China serving with the Flying Tigers; Zoe Moy, a student in England at a famous school with no rules; Lai King Moy, a girl quarantined in San Francisco during a plague epidemic; Greta Moy, a tech executive with a unique dating app; and Afong Moy, the first Chinese woman to set foot in America.

As painful recollections affect her present life, Dorothy discovers that trauma isn't the only thing she's inherited. A stranger is searching for her in each time period. A stranger who's loved her through all of her genetic memories. Dorothy endeavors to break the cycle of pain and abandonment, to finally find peace for her daughter, and gain the love that has long been waiting, knowing she may pay the ultimate price.

Author: Jamie Ford
Publisher: Atria Books
Published: 08/02/2022
Pages: 384
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.21lbs
Size: 9.29h x 6.29w x 1.32d
ISBN: 9781982158217


Review Citation(s):
Library Journal Prepub Alert 01/01/2022 pg. 14
Booklist 05/15/2022 pg. 32
Kirkus Reviews 06/01/2022
Publishers Weekly 06/20/2022
Library Journal 08/01/2022 pg. 88
Shelf Awareness 08/12/2022

About the Author
Jamie Ford is the great-grandson of Nevada mining pioneer Min Chung, who emigrated from Hoiping, China, to San Francisco in 1865, where he adopted the western name Ford, thus confusing countless generations. His debut novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, spent two years on the New York Times bestseller list and went on to win the 2010 Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature. His work has been translated into thirty-five languages. Having grown up in Seattle, he now lives in Montana with his wife and a one-eyed pug.