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  • Somebody's Daughter

  • A Memoir
  • Written by: Ashley C. Ford
  • Narrated by: Ashley C. Ford
  • Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (68 ratings)

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Somebody's Daughter

Written by: Ashley C. Ford
Narrated by: Ashley C. Ford
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Publisher's Summary

"Ashley C. Ford brings listeners into her life in this outstanding coming-of-age story.... Listeners will cheer as Ford attends college and weep as she visits her father in prison, and when he is finally released." (AudioFile magazine, Earphones Award winner)

This program is read by the author, and includes a bonus conversation between the author and Clint Smith.

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 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.

A Macmillan Audio production from Flatiron Books

"Ashley Ford's prose is glass - so clear, sharp and smooth that the reader sees, in vivid focus, her complicated childhood, brilliant mind, and golden heart. The gravity and urgency of Somebody’s Daughter anchored me to my chair and slowed my heartbeat - like no book has since Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye. Ashley Ford is a writer for the ages, and Somebody’s Daughter will be a book of the year." (Glennon Doyle, author of number-one New York Times best seller Untamed and founder of Together Rising)

"This remarkable, heart-wrenching story of loss, hardship, and self-acceptance astounds." (Publishers Weekly, starred review)

“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, number-one New York Times best-selling author)

©2021 Ashley C. Ford (P)2021 Macmillan Audio

What the critics say

Christian Science Monitor Best Books of the Year, 2021

Hudson Booksellers Best of the Year, 2021

Washington Post Best Books of the Year, 2021

Publishers Weekly Best Books of the Year, 2021

New York Times Book Review Notable Books of the Year, 2021

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What listeners say about Somebody's Daughter

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Such an Incredible Journey

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this amazing journey told by Ashley. Thank you for sharing your story…I relate so much to the relationship with your mother…sadly, she was taken from me much too soon.
I will recommend this book to all my friends and family.

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amazing writing!

I found the writing amazing eventhough I found it hard to like the main character it was written so well I still enjoyed it. so many moments in the book was very relatable to my life and I loved the emotional descriptions

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