Book Notes: Somebody's Daughter: A Memoir

For half a minute, I knew I had it in me to tell the truth, and be loved anyway.

Ashley Ford’s memoir Somebody’s Daughter revolves around her relationship with her father, who was incarcerated for all of her childhood and part of her youth.

Despite the many struggles in the book (a single mother raising two children with little money, sexual assault, trying to make a living as a writer), the book never feels bleak or hopeless. There is a bittersweet depth of feeling, insights into relationships and life that ring universal.

Ford is young, and the story ends on an upwards trajectory – better things seems to lie ahead. I want to know what happens next.