69 books
—
28 voters
Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.
Start by marking “Daughter” as Want to Read:
Daughter
by
Daughter, a penetrating novel by Essence editor asha bandele and chosen by Black Issues Book Review as Best Urban Fiction for 2003, follows a young woman through life that changes in one night from a horrific incident with police brutality.
At nineteen, Aya is a promising Black college student from Brooklyn who is struggling through a difficult relationship with her emotion ...more
At nineteen, Aya is a promising Black college student from Brooklyn who is struggling through a difficult relationship with her emotion ...more
Get A Copy
Paperback, 272 pages
Published
January 4th 2005
by Scribner
(first published September 16th 2003)
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Reader Q&A
To ask other readers questions about
Daughter,
please sign up.
Recent Questions
Community Reviews
Showing 1-30
Start your review of Daughter
Jul 23, 2015
Brown Girl Reading
rated it
it was amazing
Recommends it for:
mother-daughter stories, stories about African-American women
Shelves:
favorites
Have you ever read a book that evoked so much emotion that you felt it was familiar and it made you shed a tear? That hasn’t happened to me in ages. Daughter begins with the story of Miriam and her daughter Aya. They are keeping things together and getting on the best they can with no other family links. One night Aya goes out for her usual run and doesn’t come back. She is shot down by a police officer who mistakes her for a young black male suspect in a recent robbery in the area. Follow link
...more
Dec 11, 2014
Nea
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
mothers, daughters, parents
This book spoke to me on so many levels. As a mother, a daughter, a Black woman in America, a survivor, a human being sometimes unsure which way is up. Miriam represents generations of women like me- so often raised to hide our emotions, ignore our wounds, forget our past. No time for whining, dwelling, talking about what's wrong, or trying to fix the brokenness inside. For the sake of our children, and the tomorrow we hope awaits them, we skip our healing and focus every ounce of energy on surv
...more
Beautiful and heartbreaking. A must read!
I loved the concept of this book and the story was definitely worth
telling but the writing style fell a little short for me. At any rate it is
always important to show and tell
your daughter/son how much you love them and to be honest with issues that truly matter. Sometimes the way we raise our children is either the way we were raised or the total opposite of our childhood. In most cases, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. ...more
telling but the writing style fell a little short for me. At any rate it is
always important to show and tell
your daughter/son how much you love them and to be honest with issues that truly matter. Sometimes the way we raise our children is either the way we were raised or the total opposite of our childhood. In most cases, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. ...more
Part of me thinks I read this book at a bad time because I’m actually upset at the injustice Miriam has lived through. Without giving too much away, no one should lose every person they’ve loved. Daughter is Miriam’s story, one that contains love, heartache, and bitterness. Aya, Miriam’s daughter, is a teenager who gets in trouble by defending herself against a would be rapist. That act of rebellion is another spin of the same rebellion Miriam put her parents through and to a lesser extent her o
...more
This was one of the best books of 2015 for me! Click the link for my complete thoughts
https://youtu.be/W-Nnoou4MPQ ...more
https://youtu.be/W-Nnoou4MPQ ...more
I read it over a period of two days and nights. Every mother who has a daughter should read this. Especially every mother with a daughter who strives to follow her faith in an orthodox way should read this. Without a doubt it will touch you profoundly one way or another.
Asha Bandele's style of writing I found challenging at first but it didn't take me long to appreciate and enjoy it. With this book she writes from the perspective of the characters featured within however big or small their part ...more
Asha Bandele's style of writing I found challenging at first but it didn't take me long to appreciate and enjoy it. With this book she writes from the perspective of the characters featured within however big or small their part ...more
Wow! We're can I began with this book. I love the story/writing, in fact I find this story to be very strong because it relates to what is really happening in today's world. No parent should bury their child, police brutality have become a very strong point in this story, it shows what a parent go through when they lost there child. This book also shows how communication is broken within the family and that is what I love about the author, she knows how to really touch right inside the story.
...more
I loved the concept but not the execution. Unfortunately, Bandele decides to give us the watered down version of what this book should have been. The language, the feelings and voices of the characters just fall flat. Aya is a believable character but she is not done justice by this writing and neither is her mother. I think it could have been better.
Beautiful, brutal, and emotional. This was a Didi recommendation from a few years ago and I am so glad that I got around to it. I highly recommend.
Painfully visceral novel about silences and avoidance in mother -daughter relationships, parent -child relationships passed down by generations before.
I find her writing painful, tragic and emotionally excavating. She has a keen sense of stripping the psychology thread bare and examining feelings and choices meticulously and raw.
She writes about love with desperate longing and makred with tragedy of the realities of the legacy and presence of racism, slavery and chronic injustice that black fo ...more
I find her writing painful, tragic and emotionally excavating. She has a keen sense of stripping the psychology thread bare and examining feelings and choices meticulously and raw.
She writes about love with desperate longing and makred with tragedy of the realities of the legacy and presence of racism, slavery and chronic injustice that black fo ...more
If you have a daughter, if your are a daughter, if you know a daughter, if you plan on having a daughter. Yes, you need to buy this book!
This novel is about the relationship between a mother and daughter who never really knew on another until it was too late.
Miriam is the giving mother who would do anything to ensure Aya's need were meet. She felt the less Aya knew about her past, the less hurt and disappointed she would be. So wrong! ...more
This novel is about the relationship between a mother and daughter who never really knew on another until it was too late.
Miriam is the giving mother who would do anything to ensure Aya's need were meet. She felt the less Aya knew about her past, the less hurt and disappointed she would be. So wrong! ...more
Daughter tackles the tragic subject of a mother who experiences the loss of a child.
Though the theme of the book was relatively heavy, Ms. Bandele's words were thought-provoking. I felt every emotion the characters were feeling and deeply empathized with the protagonist, Miriam.
This novel is a must read.
...more
Though the theme of the book was relatively heavy, Ms. Bandele's words were thought-provoking. I felt every emotion the characters were feeling and deeply empathized with the protagonist, Miriam.
This novel is a must read.
...more
This book is disturbing, uplifting, inspirational - all at the same time. A very good peek into the cofused life of a character - the things that make us the way we are and the ways a person can change. I am really having a hard time writing about this book but it has had an impact on me. I look forward to reading more from this author.
This was a nicely written book on reflection & how history repeats itself. Very sad what Aya & Miriam experienced. Once Miriam's story was told, she was better understood. Storyline was detailed & held my attention. This is a book daughters & mothers alike should read.
...more
The pain & sorrow in this book. Whew! I am just broken, just broken! You will not walk away from this book without tears in your eyes.
“I shall become, I shall become a collector of me. And put meat on my soul.”
— Sonia Sanchez
“I shall become, I shall become a collector of me. And put meat on my soul.”
— Sonia Sanchez
tragic beauty can be a captivating force
Bandele has a very poetic way writing that is a pleasure to read.
Beautiful and devastating all at the same time
This was a good story that had a powerful message and it's the type of book that more people, especially women should read. A woman trying to find her place in the world leaves home to be with a man and start a family with him only to have him taken from her too soon and she's forced to raise their daughter alone. But instead of dealing with what's happened, living through the pain and finding joy in life, she closes herself off emotionally, especially to the one person she loves most, her daugh
...more
This was a heart felt book for me. The same thing happened twenty years later! Thank you for writing this book and giving readers an idea of what Black Women go through as far as having to hold things in when really we need to be discussing past and present events good and bad. Time to stop sweeping things under the rug and talk about it. Thank you now I have to go and get your other book The Prisoner's Wife!
...more
I love this book about a mother who must come to grips with losing her daughter while at the same time realizing that she was never really close with her daughter. As she sits by her daughter's bedside in the hospital and after the funeral, this mother confronts her past. In confronting that past, she examines her relationship with Aya's father, her own parents, and herself. Loved it!
...more
Simply excellent. Can serve not just as a compelling story about a complex mother-daughter relationship, but as a history of black American experience in the last fifty years. Subtle, multidemensional writing that communicates most through what is left unsaid.
This one made my heart ache. The writing was exquisite -- almost lyrical. So much about being a mother, being a daughter, dealing with senseless loss -- a lot to think about here. This would be a very good choice for book groups.
One of the best - and most difficult - books I've ever read. Asha Bendele offers a primer on love and loss, parenting, and being true to oneself. We must never forget the violence against others simply because of the color of their skin. We must keep telling our story and their story.
...more
The ending doesn't live up to the rest
The first 90ish% of the book is amazing. But the end just fizzles before it dies. It's like a roller coaster with all the twist and turns during the journey and the end is smooth but abrupt. ...more
The first 90ish% of the book is amazing. But the end just fizzles before it dies. It's like a roller coaster with all the twist and turns during the journey and the end is smooth but abrupt. ...more
This is the first book that evoked the most emotion in me. I cried so hard. Such a touching story for anyone. As a woman, this book was powerful for me.
4.5
Such an intense and heartbreaking book that I think more people should read. I highly recommend this book.
Such an intense and heartbreaking book that I think more people should read. I highly recommend this book.
I read this book in two days. It is a sad novel, representative of racial injustice and police brutality in America. Well written.
This book was so beautifully written and brought me to tears multiple times throughout the story. I MUST read more of Bandele's work!
...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Reader's Bar: May Book Discussion: Daughter: A Novel | 13 | 12 | May 23, 2018 08:50AM | |
| Literary Fiction ...: Discussion: Daughter | 88 | 106 | Jun 01, 2015 06:30PM |
Readers also enjoyed
An award-winning author and journalist, asha bandele first attained recognition when she penned her 1999 debut book, The Prisoner’s Wife, a powerful, lyrical memoir about a young Black woman’s romance and marriage with a man who was serving a twenty-to-life sentence in prison. With the hope that they would live as a couple in the outside world, she became pregnant with a daughter. A former feature
...more
Related Articles
Kazuo Ishiguro insists he’s an optimist about technology.
“I'm not one of these people who thinks it's going to come and destroy us,” he...
380 likes · 37 comments
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
“I know it ain’t easy. But finally you got to let the hope of easy just go and think about what you need to do. How you can just be right. For yourself and most of all for that child.”
—
1 likes
More quotes…
