Somebody's Daughter

A Memoir

By: Ashley C. Ford

Narrated by: Ashley C. Ford

Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins

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

Critic reviews

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

Like listening to a friend’s true story.

I’ve only listened to and told the true stories like this in personal conversations, usually early in a relationship when there’s enough trust to expose who you really are and how you got there. We feel and relate and reflect and learn much about ourselves as we learn about our friend. All that happened for me here. I loved Ashley’s voice as she spoke to me. I definitely recommend.

An intimate gift shared by the author

It was hard to put this book down. I also highly recommend the interview at the end :)

It’s good that woman are speaking out against their rapist .

I good story. Black family has issues , but triumphs . She grows and changes . She escaped out of low class life .

Raw, truthful, couldn't stop listening!

Ashley's writing is so beautifully descriptive. I felt like I was there with her. I wanted to hug Ashley the entirety of the book and not out of pitty but tell her thank you for her grand bravery. Ashley's vulnerability is what being alive to me is all about. I hope this book brings out the vulnerability in whoever reads it. This book it phenomenal. Read it (:

A gift…

Audiobook review: I always appreciate when an author reads their own memoir. It enhances the telling that much more. I had learned about Ashley through an interview with Glennon Doyle. Ashley’s story is an important one for survivors of traumatized upbringings and the resulting resilience and vocalization people need to start or continue the process of lifting themselves from similar experiences. This book is a gift towards healing and thriving.

Love this book

Thank you, Ashley, for sharing your life with us. You are a beautiful soul. I feel like you are my friend now.

Wow!

I couldn’t stop listening. After spending over eight hours listening, Ashley feels like my friend. I wanted to hug her, hold her and keep young Ashley safe. She gave me language for shared emotional experiences. And I cried at the familiar scene of saying good-bye to her grandmother.
Thank you for sharing your story! ♥️

Enjoyable

I enjoyed this book very much, it was a good story of large family dynamics. I would have liked to have heard more.
what I didn't care for as much, though it was very informative and had historic significance, was the one hour interview at the books end between Ashley and the other author. I wanted to hear more of her story.

Beautifully written!

I love listening to the author read their story!
Very well written and inspiring ! Thank you for you words!

Love, forgiveness and healing.

“Although the wind blows terribly here, the moonlight also leaks between the roof planks of this ruined house."
Izumi Shikibu

Ashley penned a transparent story that encapsulated love, belonging, forgiveness, resentment, poverty, incarceration, mental health, generational trauma, and abuse. Through the lens of her earliest memories of her childhood, she recalls her very volatile relationship with her mother and other friends/family members. Although there were memories she did not want to keep Ashley bravely reckoned with puberty and stolen innocence. Her mother was abusive and emotionally unavailable. Her father was unavailable due to his incarceration. Given her fathers' circumstances, the only way her father showed her love was through his letters. Throughout the story, Ashley exhibited a spirit of resilience. She unapologetically owned her truth and ultimately was able to salvage a familial bond. We spend so much time harboring resentment and unforgiveness, which only perpetuates the issues. It's either a tragic situation or in death that regrets consume us. But, forgiveness is a struggle for most of us. Ashley belonged to somebody. She is Somebody's Daughter.