“I wanted to use all of my colors to draw a story, with the old and the new, the familiar and the unfamiliar. To create a word-picture with as much wonder and possibility as history and remembrance.” Author Jamie Ford

Do our ancestors’ experiences affect our DNA? Can we analyze our personal history to better inform future generations? Would embracing this practice affect the philosophical concept of karma?

The science of epigenetics is at the heart of this sweeping novel and the abstract and heady themes will resonate with a particular type of reader. The cleverly crafted plot spanning the years 1836-2086 is tethered by 7 generations of women, all descendants of the actual first known Chinese woman to arrive in America. Within each time period is the story of a man trying to find a “daughter” and this “daughter” trying to find Home. I referred back to the Dramatis Personae list many times to keep my timeline straight and was truly carried away by each and every story. My patience was rewarded as the novel culminated with a gratifying ah ha moment in Chapter 20 (Echos), where this jumped from a 4 to a 5 star read for me.

Especially for readers who are ready for a bigger, bolder and more complex version of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Mr. Ford’s latest should satisfy and inspire readers who enjoyed Cloud Cuckoo Land and The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue.

Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

This was an incredible journey to read! Thank you to Atria and NetGalley for the advanced reading copy. This is a story of 7 generations of Chinese-American women spanning over 250 years and their shared experiences and trauma. The characters are vivid, the magical realism is great and there is a lot to think about in this one.

Thanks to Atria and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this title prior to publication. I have loved Ford's previous books, and I heard from a podcaster that this was excellent, so I was so excited to receive a digital copy. This was such a compelling, evocative read. It's a feminist genre mashup of historical fiction, science fiction, and mystery, involving Dorothy Moy's past five generations of trauma, and how she goes about coming to terms with that trauma and finding peace for herself and her daughter. The POV switches between the generational women, and the longer chapters help the reader really get to know each character and start to find connections between them. I learned about historical events I knew nothing about, but I also loved the views from 2045 and later as Ford imagines them to be. I was not sure how Ford was going to bring it all together at the end, but it was so empowering. The author's note at the beginning and the acknowledgements at the end really tie it all together. 5 stars!

This is an interesting story of 7 generations of Chinese-American women, their romances, their shared memories, and shared trauma. Dorothy, in the *present* of 2045, explores epigenetics: the memories and traumas that are shared across the generations. Each of the seven women have a fascinating place in history and an interesting story to tell. The memories and traumas become intertwined as Dorothy discovers her place in this story. I really enjoyed it.

Ford bases this novel on a theory of epigenetic, that fear can be transited through the generations.
It was an interesting approach and one that I just couldn’t buy into nor immerse myself in.
The novel is well written it just wasn’t my cup of tea.

I received this from Netgalley.com.

"Through an experimental treatment designed to mitigate inherited trauma, Dorothy intimately connects with past generations of women in her family."

An interesting concept and artful crafting of a story. Epigenetics (yup, I had to look it up) as the thread that pulls this story together between generations of women. Good read.

3.75☆

Author Jamie Ford has gifted readers with an exceptional story. With beautiful writing and powerful yet eloquent prose, this book explores what generations of women have in common. There is something so brilliantly affecting about this story. It shows all the sides of humanity, while still managing to nurture hope and the belief we can make things better for ourselves as well as the ones we love.

4.5 stars

Jamie Ford is one of my favorite authors, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise how delighted I was to get my hands on an advance reader’s copy of his newest novel, The Many Daughters of Afong Moy. In his newest work, just as he has done with his previous novels, Ford takes an event or a person in history and builds a compelling story around it, all while paying homage to his Chinese ancestry and heritage. I love this aspect of his works. With that said though, this book is actually a bit of a departure from Ford’s prior historical fiction works in that it leans more heavily into areas of science and technology as well as spirituality and philosophy. This book is quite a bit more complex than his other novels, which is fine, but I think it’s beneficial to know that going into this one, especially since it has the potential to affect the reading experience.

For me, I had never actually heard of epigenetics prior to reading this book and even now, after reading up on the subject after finishing the book, I still don’t really understand what it is, to be very honest. While the mechanics of this science and all the terminology went completely over my head, I did catch onto the overarching concept of inherited generational trauma, which played a huge role throughout the entire story.

The science part aside, there were plenty other aspects to the story that I loved: the historical and cultural elements, the beautiful writing, the meticulous storytelling, and of course, the wonderfully rendered characters. I was fascinated by the interwoven stories of the seven generations of Moy women (Afong, Lai King, Faye, Zoe, Greta, Dorothy, Annabel) in a narrative that spanned several time lines and settings — from Baltimore in 1836, to San Francisco in 1892, to England in 1927, to China in 1942, to Seattle in 2014, 2045, and 2086. Truly this is a narrative that covers past, present, and future, with strong female protagonists at its core, each with moving, poignant backstories where they endure a defining, traumatic event— these are characters I couldn’t help rooting for, even when their actions and some of the decisions they made gave me pause.

Overall, I appreciated how ambitious this book was and while I didn’t always understand exactly what I was reading, it was hard not to be drawn in by Ford’s masterful storytelling. Though this wasn’t my favorite of his novels (my favorite remains Love and Other Consolation Prizes), it was still a fantastic read that I wholeheartedly recommend. Not sure how long we’ll need to wait for Ford’s next book, but I absolutely look forward to what he may have for us next!

Received ARC from Atria Books via NetGalley.

An emotionally complex 5-star read. I engaged immediately in the lives of Ford's connected multi-generational characters, his beautifully written descriptions of situation and culture of the times. This book hooked me from page 1.

The tantalizing subject of inherited trauma is woven through five generations of women in Jamie Ford's THE MANY DAUGHTERS OF AFONG MOY, an intriguing and sometimes complicated read rich with Ford's signature multi-faceted characters. Highly recommended.

My thanks to Atria and to Netgalley for the opportunity and pleasure of an early read.

Pros: I wanted to read this book as soon as I saw Annie B. Jones of the From the Front Porch Podcast give it five stars—I trust her taste! I am so glad I took her recommendation because I found this book to be a compelling and unique read. The stories of the five generations of the Moy family reminded me of Homegoing where I was never quite ready to leave the character’s story.

What made this book unique is its use of the theory of epigenetics and generational trauma to tell the connected stories of five generations of women. I knew nothing about epigenetics until I read this book, and I loved learning about it through fiction. One of my favorite parts of this book was the Acknowledgements section because the author provided further reading on inspirations and topics that were woven throughout the book, including poetry, Buddhism, and ARkStorms.

Cons: This is a very tiny con but it took me a few chapters to organize the five characters in my head and remember who goes with which story. One thing to note for future readers is that one of the characters experiences an epidemic, which might be too soon to read about as we live through a pandemic.

4+ stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the opportunity to read this book.

This is a story of many generations of ancestors of a women and how all of their trauma is connected. It skirts the edge of sci-fi without really diving into it, but makes the whole process of discovering the lives of one's ancestors seem plausible. It gives you a lot to think about and makes you wonder if you would want to experience the pain of your ancestors or just let their stories rest.

An interesting read but sometimes a bit confusing. We are following multi generations of woman within the same family from the first Chinese woman to arrive in America to a tech executive in the future. Some of the experiences and traumas of the various generations seem to get passed on the same way we pass on certain genetics as looks, behaver etc.…
If you are looking for something a bit different and like to read about woman lives this might be just be the book for you.

5.0 stars

I received a complimentary Kindle book from NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. Thank you to Jamie Ford, Atria Books, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

My goodness! I had to take a few hours to process this amazing novel. I just don't know how to put into words what this book was about and what happened - all I know is that I loved it, related to it, and believe that it is real.

Basically, the book is about epigenetics ( Epigenetics is the study of how your behaviors and environment can cause changes that affect the way your genes work. Unlike genetic changes, epigenetic changes are reversible and do not change your DNA sequence, but they can change how your body reads a DNA sequence). There are seven Chinese and Chinese-American women in the book from different time periods, but they are all related to each other. That is all that I will share as any more will ruin the book for you.

Honestly, I think that I need to reread the book as I did notice little nuggets of hints in the book that I noticed towards the end. I was reading the book SO fast that I really didn't have time to savor it. I was HOOKED!!!

Jamie Ford has a beautifully descriptive way of writing with lovely explanations, lush settings, and amazing language. For me, anything that I can do to learn more about my husband and daughter's culture is important to me!!

PLEASE read this book. It is just amazing and mind-blowing!!!

This is the first book I have read from this author and will definitely not be the last one. This book follows generations of women in a family line while exploring epigenetics and generational trauma. I thought the stories were so interesting for each woman and the unique blend of genres was so seamless and well done. This is the first book in some time that I have literally not be able to put down. I struggled a bit with the last chapter of the book and with the epilogue some. I felt that the ending of the book should have been before both of these sections. As I continued to read the last two sections, I felt that the bottom fell out and I just completely lost the handle on how they added into the story. I definitely want to go back and read more from this author and for the most part completely enjoyed this book. Thanks for the ARC, NetGalley.

The Many Daughters of Afong Moy
by Jamie Ford
Pub Date: August 2, 2022
aTria
* Historical Fiction
Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the ARC of this book.
The author of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet returns with a powerful exploration of the love that binds one family across the generations. A powerful and thought-provoking book. I had never heard of epigenetics until this novel, but because it was written by Ford, I decided to give it a chance. It’s a science and there are numerous articles you can find on the web explaining it, articles that discuss the shared trauma aspects of it.
I recommend this book!
5 stars

5 stars!! This book was extremely heart-wrenching at times and disturbing to read, but I could not stop quickly wanting to get to the resolution of each Daughter's story. Homegoing-esque, this story is told from each Daughter's perspective starting with Afong Moy, the first Chinese woman to step foot in America and all of her female descendants up until the year 2045.

The story focuses mostly on Dorothy in future Seattle. She is trying to reconcile her sometimes debilitating depression and disassociative episodes. She has a less than ideal home life, and is trying to improve her young daughter, Ruby's, life. Dorothy participates in intergenetics, an experimental therapy in hopes of solving past intergenerational trauma to help future generations.

I really loved these stories, I was so frustrated at the injustices against these women, but luckily there is a good sense of closure in the ending that will put your heart at ease.

A top notch thought provoking creative work by Jamie Ford at his best. Brilliantly executed. The interesting characters and time periods all come together at the end. Don't want to spoil the enjoyment of the book by giving away too many details. Perfect for book club discussions.

The concept of this book is incredible. The idea that our present is affected by any number of events from our past, passed down from ancestor to ancestor until it reaches the present DNA and can, in turn, be the cause for some of the issues we face now. Brilliant.

Unfortunately, for me, the book was good not great based on the execution. Don't get me wrong, the individual chapters of each of the Moy women throughout history are amazing. They are full portraits of these women and what they went through, what they suffered and lost. Its easy to see that, through the idea of epigenesis, what each Moy woman went through left a scar on their DNA that was passed down to Dorothy and ultimately her daughter Annabel. The echos of the past are clear.

What remains unclear to me is what was Dorothy looking to get out of her treatments? On the one hand, its obvious that she's learning about her past and how it could be affecting her present and her future. But when we reach the point of 'Echoes' in the book that things dont add up for me.

Perhaps I like a more straightforward approach to something so fantastical. This treatment seems like something out of a dream, though I understand its based in reality, but because it SEEMS like fantasy, I wanted its effects to be more grounded, less left up to speculation.

The stories, however, are wonderful. Ford creates such vivid characters that I would read full books on each of them. They all had such interesting lives and suffered in such unique ways that I wouldn't have minded if the book were longer, or only went back and forth through their lives.

Even without the "fantastical" treatment approach, there is something very profound being said about how those who came before us affect our present and our future. Whether it is literally affecting us, rewriting parts of our genetic code before we're born, figurative scars passed down from generation to generation, those who come before us can shape us. And understanding that and allowing ourselves to choose differently, is a powerful, beautiful concept.

I absolutely loved this book. It was built around the premise of inter-generational trauma staying in our bodies, so that we keep the remnants of emotions and trauma that happened to our ancestors. I fully buy in to this idea, and thought that the author portrayed it in such a compelling way. There is always a risk of it feeling disjointed with this many characters and so many huge jumps in time, but it felt cinematic when the author tied the end of one snippet to the beginning of the next through a small detail (like lights going out in a storm transitioning to a singer waiting backstage in the darkness).

This would be a great book club read and I will put it up for consideration by my book club (even though I know a couple of people probably won’t like the time jumping. 😊)