INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER NBCC John Leonard Prize Finalist Indie Bestseller “This is a book people will be talking about forever.” ― 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 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. Named a Best Book of the Year: The New York Times - NPR - TIME - Marie Claire - Cosmopolitan - Esquire - Real Simple - Amazon - Publishers Weekly - BookRiot - Good Housekeeping - Publishers Lunch - Audible - Library Journal - The Washington Post Audiofile's Best Audiobooks of 2021 Audible's Best of 2021 " Shoulder to shoulder with Ann Patchett and the greatest writers of our age.... There's such weight in this book. Such wisdom in this book, and grace and passion and truth. [Ford] wrote it with every cell in [her] body. I will always be a fan, and a fan of everything [she] writes." ― Elizabeth Gilbert “This is a book people will be talking about forever.” ―Glennon Doyle, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Untamed " Somebody’s Daughter is the heart-wrenching yet equally witty and wondrous story of how Ford came through the fire and emerged triumphant, as her own unapologetic, Black-girl self." ― The New York Times " Somebody’s Daughter stands out as one of the BEST memoirs of 2021." ― BookRiot " A master class on how to love your family and still live with individuality and freedom. Her story is particular to her, but it's also about every single one of us. I mean, it helped me to lead myself toward breaking old familial patterns and creating new ones, truly, because the way she talks about her family and the way that she talks about the boundaries she creates is just stunning." ―Abby Wambach on NPR's Morning Edition, "Soccer Star Abby Wambach Recommends 3 Reads On Sports And Leadership" "Perhaps the greatest contribution Ford makes is to offer her story ― written in the most lively and lucid prose ― in its most raw and unabridged form...By telling her truth so honestly and authentically, Ford invites us to tell ours, too." ― The Washington Post " Somebody’s Daughter will leave readers gasping for air." ―Natachi Onwuamaegbu, The Boston Globe " Ford’s vulnerability on the page is an extraordinary feat, as she masterfully traces how the yearning girl she once was became the empowered woman she is today." ― Esquire "Ford executes her task with both unstinting honesty and rare tenderness toward the deeply flawed, but steadfast, circle of adults who raised her. The resulting portraits, of her mother and grandmother, in particular, are remarkably vivid and humane, haunting the reader long after one has closed the book’s pages ..." ― LA Review of Books “Sure to be one of the best memoirs of 2021.” ― Kirkus Reviews , starred review "Gorgeous, profoundly moving, and historically important ― by a terrific writer." ―Min Jin Lee, author of the New York Times bestseller and National Book Award Finalist Pachinko "Armed with the insight and lessons from her youth, the author emerged as a bright young college student who learned to love herself for who she was and who she has yet to become." ― The New York Journal Review of Books "With a lucidity that is almost a superpower, [Ford] transports us into her singular experience of growing up poor and Black and female in Fort Wayne, Ind." ― People magazine, Book of the Week "This exquisite, honest memoir