One of the most prominent voices of her generation debuts with an extraordinarily powerful memoir: the story of a childhood defined by the looming absence of her incarcerated father.
Through poverty, adolescence, and a fraught relationship with her mother, Ashley C. Ford wishes she could turn to her father for hope and encouragement. There are just a few problems: he’s in prison, and she doesn’t know what he did to end up there. She doesn’t know how to deal with the incessant worries that keep her up at night, or how to handle the changes in her body that draw unwanted attention from men. In her search for unconditional love, Ashley begins dating a boy her mother hates. When the relationship turns sour, he assaults her. Still reeling from the rape, which she keeps secret from her family, Ashley desperately searches for meaning in the chaos. Then, her grandmother reveals the truth about her father’s incarceration . . . and Ashley’s entire world is turned upside down.
Somebody’s Daughter steps into the world of growing up a poor Black girl in Indiana with a family fragmented by incarceration, exploring how isolating and complex such a childhood can be. As Ashley battles her body and her environment, she embarks on a powerful journey to find the threads between who she is and what she was born into, and the complicated familial love that often binds them.
“Sure to be one of the best memoirs of 2021.” ―Kirkus Reviews, starred review
“So clear, sharp, and smooth that the reader sees, in vivid focus, Ford’s complicated childhood, brilliant mind, and golden heart. Ford is a writer for the ages, and Somebody’s Daughter will be a book of the year.” ―Glennon Doyle, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Untamed
“Ford’s wrenchingly brilliant memoir is truly a classic in the making. The writing is so richly observed and so suffused with love and yearning that I kept forgetting to breathe while reading it.” ―John Green, #1 New York Times bestselling author
Author(s): Ashley C. Ford
Edition: 1st, Hardback
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Year: 2021
Language: English
Commentary: incredible piece of nonfiction. the audiobook is narrated by the author. this is her first book.
Pages: 224
Tags: queer, memoir, Fort Wayne, Indianapolis, Indiana, incarceration, memoir, Coretta Scott King, Edyth Scott Bagley, Missouri, Alabama gay, bisexual,
For my family,
and my friends who feel like family
Although the wind
blows terribly here,
the moonlight also leaks
between the roof planks
of this ruined house.
—IZUMI SHIKIBU
Ashley,
I must admit that I was surprised to hear from you. I had just come in from my institutional job, when one of the correctional officers brought me my mail. I thought that it was a book or newspaper that I had ordered, because I hardly ever, if ever, receive any mail from anyone on the streets.
Ashley, don’t take this the wrong way, but come next year, I will have been incarcerated for twenty years, which means the letter that you wrote to me is the first letter that you have written me in almost twenty years. I was at a loss for words as I slowly read your letter over and over again.
You are right when you say that you are a woman now, and not a little girl. So, I won’t talk to you like you are a little girl. Instead I will talk to you like you are a woman. However, don’t misunderstand me, you will always be my little girl, not to mention, my favorite girl.
Why God in heaven gave you to me, only he knows. I do not deserve to have you as my daughter, but God gave you to me for a reason, and I am so grateful to be your father. Please! Please! Forgive me for all the pain I caused you in your life.
I am going to survive prison. I am going to create a beautiful life for myself. I’m going to show you and your brother R.C. how much I love you with every breath I take. Ashley, your father is coming home. I cannot promise you when that will be, but I can give you my word that I am coming.
Love always,
Dad
