Somebodys Daughter, Ashley C. Ford
Somebodys Daughter, Ashley C. Ford
35 Rating(s)
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.20
Club: $9.99

Somebody's Daughter
A Memoir

Bestseller

Author: Ashley C. Ford

Narrator: Ashley C. Ford

Unabridged: 8 hr 44 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/01/2021


Synopsis

"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 #1 New York Times bestseller 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, #1 New York Times bestselling author

About Ashley C. Ford

Ashley C. Ford is a writer, host, and educator who lives in Indianapolis, Indiana with her husband, poet and fiction writer Kelly Stacy, and their chocolate lab Astro Renegade Ford-Stacy. Ford is the former host of The Chronicles of Now podcast, co-host of The HBO companion podcast Lovecraft Country Radio, seasons one & three of MasterCard’s Fortune Favors The Bold, as well as the video interview series PROFILE by BuzzFeed News, and Brooklyn-based news & culture TV show, 112BK.She was also the host of the first season of Audible's literary interview series, Authorized. She has been named among Forbes Magazine's 30 Under 30 in Media (2017), Brooklyn Magazine's Brooklyn 100 (2016), Time Out New York's New Yorkers of The Year (2017), and Variety’s New Power of New York (2019).


Reviews

Goodreads review by Roxane on May 23, 2021

I've known Ashley for a long time and it has been wonderful to watch her career evolve. Her debut memoir is sublime. It is beautifully written, searingly honest, and deeply affecting. There is a real grace with which she writes about the people in her life and those who have harmed her. Her ability......more

Goodreads review by Lisa of Troy on January 18, 2024

A perfect depiction of growing up in the 80's and 90's. As far back as Ashley Ford can remember, her father has been in prison. He writes her letters and sends her words of affirmation and encouragement. While her father has been doing his bid, her mother delves into a series of relationships and add......more

Goodreads review by Regina on June 14, 2021

When you pick up a memoir by someone you’ve never heard of and end up finishing it all in one go, you know you’ve found a winner. People who live above rocks and not under them like me may already know Ashley C. Ford from her podcasts, hosting gigs, or writings for outlets such as BuzzFeed, The Guar......more

Goodreads review by Cindy on December 29, 2021

I saw the author give a talk at a work event last year and really enjoyed her. She's charismatic and funny while clearly emotionally intelligent, and its always those types of people who you know have been through some shit. I enjoyed learning about her life in this memoir, along with how she shows......more

Goodreads review by Thomas on August 09, 2021

I found this memoir a courageous exploration of family trauma as well as the pain of growing up as a girl. While Ashley Ford provides an impactful outline of her feelings about her incarcerated father, she portrays with even greater depth and complexity her relationship with her mother, who often hu......more


Awards

  • Christian Science Monitor Best Books of the Year
  • Hudson Booksellers Best of the Year
  • Washington Post Best Books of the Year
  • Publishers Weekly Best Books of the Year
  • National Book Critics Circle Award - Nominee
  • New York Times Book Review Notable Books of the Year