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Daughter: A Novel (Hardcover)

~ asha bandele (Author) "It was a morning thick with winter and a surprising sun..." (more)
Key Phrases: Miriam Rivers, Manchester Place, New York (more...)
4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Solemn and occasionally maudlin, this first novel by the author of the acclaimed memoir The Prisoner's Wife tells a tragic, too-familiar story: a promising young African-American is mistakenly shot by the police in Brooklyn, N.Y. Nineteen-year-old Aya has been getting her life together after a brush with the law and is working hard to earn a college degree. Only the coolness of her beautiful, distant single mother, Miriam, prevents her from being truly happy. When Aya is gravely wounded, Miriam is forced to face her own past and examine her emotionally arid life. Shifting focus rather clumsily, Bandele chronicles Miriam's strict upbringing and forbidden romance with sweet Bird, an ambitious janitor. Miriam loses Bird just before Aya is born, and when Aya is taken from her, too, she resorts to violence. Though she ends up in prison, she is finally able to tentatively connect with others again, meditating on a line by Aya's favorite poet, Sonia Sanchez: "I shall become a collector of me/ And put meat on my soul." Bandele tells her story in simple language, though plaintive asides ("have you ever told me a joke, Mommy, or kissed me just because?"), and italicized laments ("Oh God, didn't I pay with Bird?") give the novel a sentimental veneer. Bandele's low-key take on a grim aspect of the urban black experience stands in refreshing contrast to more sensationalistic renditions, but Miriam's muddled final epiphany will leave readers wishing for something more.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist

A black mother's rage and sorrow drive this passionate first novel about a beloved daughter shot dead by the police on the streets of Brooklyn. The story begins with smart college student Aya Rivers chafing at her controlling, secretive mother, Miriam. Out running one day, Aya is shot dead by a policeman. It's a case of mistaken identity. No one is accountable. Then the story switches to Miriam, alone, remembering her break from her cold, secretive home and her love for Aya's dad, Bird. Aya never knew him, never knew that he survived Vietnam only to be shot dead by the police in the war at home. Bandele, an editor for Essence magazine and author of the memoir The Prisoner's Wife (1999), writes about family grief and bitterness with searing immediacy. Woven into the mother-daughter story, Bird's life of hope and heartbreak is beautifully told, his dreams of college, family, and work destroyed even before his murder. The angry message is sometimes overwhelming, but this powerful story does what the author asks for: it breaks the silence. Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 272 pages
  • Publisher: Scribner (September 16, 2003)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0743211847
  • ISBN-13: 978-0743211840
  • Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #427,347 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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More About the Author

Asha Bandele
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

› Visit Amazon's Asha Bandele Page
Front Cover | Front Flap | First Pages | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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First Sentence:
It was a morning thick with winter and a surprising sun. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Miriam Rivers, Manchester Place, New York, Maud Rivers, City University, Aya Rivers, Chief Conners, City Hall, Miss Davis, Sonia Sanchez
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Customer Reviews

22 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.7 out of 5 stars (22 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Secrets and Lies Can Kill, October 8, 2003
By renaynay "renaynay" (Tallahassee, Florida United States) - See all my reviews
Daughter is one of those soul-stirring works that seizes your attention. It compels you to glimpse into your own life and seek change within yourself. Thought-provoking, loving, and moving, asha bandele has written a novel about the relationship between a mother and daughter who never really knew one another -- until it was too late.

Miriam is the giving mother who would do anything to ensure Aya's needs were met. Yet, she wasn't the kind of mother who gave hugs freely, said "I love you" just because, or allowed herself to speak openly with her daughter. She felt the less Aya knew about her past, the less hurt and disappointed she would be.

Aya, at the opening of the novel, is a 19-year-old college student who made excellent grades and did what she was told. Although she loves her mother dearly, her only wish is to know who her father was. All she's ever really known about Bird was that he was a Vietnam War veteran.

Bird was so much more than that, as we find out. Miriam has a past with Bird that goes a lot deeper than Aya could ever know. But sadly, she never finds out because her life is tragically taken from her by police who mistakenly kill her. And Miriam not only grieves for her daughter, but grieves for things she's always known but could never tell Aya.

bandele's writing is superb and one could almost lose herself in the lyrical, surreal writing from a writer who seems destined to be one of our most renowned Black authors.

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the BEST books ever ....., March 26, 2005
I have finished reading this book and it IS one of THE BEST books I have read in MY LIFE.
This will be my new gift book for the women friends in my life.
Ahhh ..... it had truly captured my heart.
If you have a daughter, if you are a daughter, if you know a daughter, if you plan on having a daughter ..... BUY THIS BOOK!
It is about a woman who's daughter is killed by the police.
It goes into her life and the relationship, or lack of relationship she had with her daughter.
It is about not holding back.
It is about words never said.
It is about regret.
It is about LIVING regardless of the heartbreak.
It is about love lost ..... BUT having the courage to still get up and LIVE.
It is about having a voice regardless of the shame.
It is about the shame and sharing the story of shame.
Oh, it is about LIFE.
I love it.
It has touched something deep inside of me.
I am so full of emotions when I think about the many messages of this book.
Oh, and the writing is so GOOD.
Asha is one hell of a writer.
I can't wait for her to write more.


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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars TOUCHING, October 8, 2003
By A Customer
Its been a long time since I read a book that touched me the way Daughter has. After reading The Prisoners Wife I was looking forward to reading asha bandele's next book. One Sunday while attending the 5th Ave Book Fair in NYC I had the pleasure of meeting asha and her daughter. I was fortunate to have her autograph my copy of Daughter. I couldn't wait to start reading and once I started I wasn't dissapointed.
I was swept up in the story of Miriam and Aya. As a mother with 2 daughters I understand the delicate balance of the mother/daughter relationship.
asha bandele is as very talented writer and I look forward to reading more from her.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Very Good
I really enjoyed this book, I haven't read the Prisoner's Wife, which some have told me is a lot better than this book, that means I am in for a treat. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Jacque Cartwright

5.0 out of 5 stars Daughter : A Novel
asha wrote a moving novel, one that move me to tears,it moved me to say and to mean I love you before it cannot be heard by those who need to hear. Read more
Published on June 30, 2006 by D. bassham

3.0 out of 5 stars Very depressing
The group discussed the book and overall felt the book was a bit depressing and lacked some closure within the major characters. Read more
Published on June 5, 2006 by Natasha

4.0 out of 5 stars The Dreams of Children
This is a book that I truly enjoyed, and felt compelled to stick with for its entirety. It is enjoyable to read a book by an author that is not steeped in the he said/she said... Read more
Published on February 24, 2006 by D. T. Jones

5.0 out of 5 stars Moving and Standing Still
This is one of the best books I have ever read. Bandele gives us the most wonderful prose about mothers and daughters. Read more
Published on June 19, 2005 by S. S. Erby

5.0 out of 5 stars A "300000 or 500000 Murdered" Blues
Maybe getting "shot down and dead" by the police is a genetic disposition that runs in the author's family? Read more
Published on May 26, 2005 by Cold Hard Blues

4.0 out of 5 stars Pages Readers Group Reveiws "Daughter"
Daughter by Ashe Bandale proved to be a thought provoking book that had Pages Readers group in much discussion. Read more
Published on November 28, 2004 by Pages Readers Group

5.0 out of 5 stars Never a Disappointment
Once again asha bandele has made words lyrical and caught readers up in her characters from page one. Read more
Published on November 27, 2004 by Zane

4.0 out of 5 stars Letting go...
I picked up her first Novel, "Prisoner's Wife," because I noticed an African-American woman wrote the book. I read the book and simply fell in love with Ms. Read more
Published on October 23, 2004 by R.E.A.L. Reviewers

5.0 out of 5 stars Rock Blooms
Ms. Bandele's latest novel, Daughter, is quite the spell. From beginning to end, Daughter mesmerizes. The book also enlightens readers to the vast murders by policemen. Read more
Published on July 25, 2004 by vannie osborne

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