In converation with Renée Ahdieh, moderated by Darcey Gohring, 2:30 – 3:20 pm at Church of the Redeemer
Jemimah Wei
Jemimah Wei was born and raised in Singapore and is now based between Singapore and the United States. She is a National Book Foundation “5 under 35” Honoree, William Van Dyke Short Story Prize winner, and was a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University and Felipe P. De Alba Fellow at Columbia University. A recipient of awards and fellowships from Singapore’s National Arts Council, Hemmingway House, Sewanee Writers’ Conference, Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and Writers in Paradise, her writing has appeared in Joyland, Guernica, and Narrative, amongst others.
Her highly anticipated debut novel, The Original Daughter, is a Good Morning America Book Club Pick, a New York Times Editors’ Pick, and an American Booksellers Association Indie Next pick. It was named a Best Book of Spring by Harper’s Bazaar, Elle, Vogue, Apple Books, and more.
MFOB featured book: The Original Daughter
Before Arin, Genevieve Yang was an only child. Living with her parents and grandmother in a single-room flat in working-class Bedok, Genevieve is saddled with an unexpected sibling when Arin appears, the shameful legacy of a grandfather long believed to be dead. As the two girls grow closer, they must navigate the intensity of life in a place where the urgent insistence on achievement demands constant sacrifice. Knowing that failure is not an option, the sisters learn to depend entirely on one another 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 Genevieve and Arin, 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.
Over nine years, through countless drafts, one line always remained, “Love is an action word. It can be committed, like a crime.” For Wei, that is the core of The Original Daughter. It’s a love story that asks, “How does a chosen family keep choosing each other despite the lifelong struggle to both embrace the ones you love and be free of one’s past?”
