Jemimah Wei – författare

In this dazzling debut, Stegner Fellow Jemimah Wei explores the formation and dissolution of family bonds in a story of ambition and sisterhood in turn-of-the-millennium Singapore.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. In the 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, rife with emotional clarity and searing social insight.

'An incredible debut' ROXANE GAY'Wise and wonderful' PAUL BEATTYWho would you sacrifice on the altar of ambition?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.

'Precise, layered and moving, The Original Daughter is a book not to miss' NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEWWHO 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 ESCOFFERYSingapore, 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

'Precise, layered and moving, The Original Daughter is a book not to miss' NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEWWHO 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 ESCOFFERYSingapore, 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