Author: Jeminah Wei
Genre: Contemporary fiction / Sing Lit
Ideal For: Readers who love multi-generational dramas steeped in secrets, identity, and family legacy. Perfect for fans of Little Fires Everywhere, The Vanishing Half, and Everything I Never Told You—those drawn to emotionally charged storytelling, complex mother-daughter relationships, and characters who must confront the past to redefine their future.
Some novels come along that feel as if they are speaking directly to you — about the complexities of family, identity, and belonging in ways you didn’t realise you needed to hear. Jemimah Wei’s The Original Daughter is one such novel. It’s at once intimate and expansive, filled with sharp insights into what it means to grow up within — and sometimes against — family expectations. Wei has crafted a narrative that is deeply Singaporean in its setting yet universally resonant in its themes. This is not just a story you read; it’s one you carry with you.
About the Author
Jemimah Wei is a Singaporean writer and host, whose sharp storytelling and rich sense of place have made her one of the most exciting new voices in contemporary fiction. Her work often explores themes of identity, migration, and womanhood, and The Original Daughter marks a bold step forward in her career. Wei’s prose is both lyrical and incisive, balancing humour, cultural specificity, and emotional depth with remarkable ease.
Plot Overview
At the heart of The Original Daughter lies a mother-daughter relationship that is both fraught and tender. The protagonist wrestles with the legacy of her family’s history, the unspoken rules of duty and sacrifice, and the question of who she truly is beyond the roles assigned to her.
The story unfolds with a rhythm that mirrors life itself: moments of sharp tension followed by quiet reflection, bursts of humour juxtaposed with raw grief. Wei moves seamlessly between personal narrative and broader cultural observations, anchoring the story in Singapore while opening it up to readers everywhere.
Rather than being driven by a singular twist, the novel is propelled by the emotional honesty of its characters. Family secrets, simmering resentments, and generational misunderstandings all play a role, but what lingers is not the drama itself — it’s the search for reconciliation and self-understanding.
Themes
One of the novel’s strengths is its exploration of identity in all its layered forms. The daughter in the story is constantly negotiating her place: between tradition and modernity, between family expectations and personal desires, between belonging and individuality.
Wei also delves into the ways memory and narrative shape us. Families tell themselves stories — sometimes half-truths, sometimes outright fictions — to survive. But what happens when you begin to question those stories? What happens when you carve out a new narrative for yourself? These questions ripple throughout the book, offering readers both challenge and comfort.
There is also a thread of migration and diaspora woven subtly through the novel. Even as the story remains rooted in Singapore, it resonates with anyone who has ever straddled different worlds, feeling not entirely at home in any of them.
Writing Style
Wei’s prose is nothing short of dazzling. She writes with precision and lyricism, but never loses sight of clarity. Her metaphors are vivid without being overbearing; her dialogue sparkles with authenticity.
What stands out most, however, is her ability to capture small moments — the way a silence lingers at the dinner table, the weight of an unsaid word, the texture of everyday life. It is in these details that the novel’s emotional resonance comes alive.
There’s also a sharp wit that cuts through the narrative, offering moments of levity without undermining the gravity of the themes. This balance makes the book not just moving but also immensely readable.
Characters
The characters in The Original Daughter are richly drawn and deeply human. The daughter at the center of the novel is relatable in her confusion, her yearning, her defiance, and her tenderness. The mother figure is equally compelling, portrayed with both flaws and strengths, embodying the contradictions of love and duty.
Secondary characters, too, feel three-dimensional. They are not merely there to serve the protagonist’s arc but exist with their own desires, frustrations, and secrets. Wei’s ability to create such layered characters is part of what makes the book so engrossing.
Why It Resonates
What makes The Original Daughter so powerful is the way it speaks to universal experiences through the specificity of its setting and culture. Readers from Singapore will recognise the textures of everyday life woven into the story, from its rhythms of speech to its cultural touchpoints. Yet readers from anywhere in the world will find themselves nodding along at the familiar tensions of family and the struggle to define oneself.
It’s a book that validates the messiness of human relationships while also offering hope. In a world where so many stories are simplified into binaries — love or hate, loyalty or betrayal — Wei reminds us that real life is much more complicated, and far more interesting.
Ideal For:
- Readers who enjoy contemporary literary fiction with emotional depth.
- Anyone drawn to stories about family, identity, and cultural heritage.
- Fans of authors like Min Jin Lee (Pachinko) or Celeste Ng (Everything I Never Told You).
- Singaporean readers looking for authentic representation in literature.
- International readers who want to immerse themselves in a story that feels both local and universal.
Final Thoughts
The Original Daughter by Jemimah Wei is a triumph. It’s beautifully written, emotionally resonant, and thematically rich. Wei has given us a novel that not only entertains but also lingers, inviting readers to reflect on their own stories, their own families, their own sense of self.
This is the kind of book that reminds you why you fell in love with literature in the first place: it shows you something true about the world and about yourself. A novel like this doesn’t just deserve to be read — it deserves to be cherished.
