{"product_id":"ancestor-trouble-a-reckoning-and-a-reconciliation-maud-newton","title":"Ancestor Trouble: A Reckoning and a Reconciliation;  Maud Newton","description":"\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv data-testid=\"description\" class=\"BookPageMetadataSection__description\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"TruncatedContent\" tabindex=\"-1\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-tabindex=\"-1\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"TruncatedContent__text TruncatedContent__text--large TruncatedContent__text--expanded\" data-testid=\"contentContainer\" tabindex=\"-1\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-tabindex=\"-1\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"DetailsLayoutRightParagraph\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"DetailsLayoutRightParagraph__widthConstrained\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Formatted\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eMaud Newton’s ancestors have vexed and fascinated her since she was a girl. Her mother’s father, who came of age in Texas during the Great Depression, was said to have married thirteen times and been shot by one of his wives. Her mother’s grandfather killed a man with a hay hook and died in a mental institution. Mental illness and religious fanaticism percolated through Maud’s maternal lines, to an ancestor accused of being a witch in Puritan-era Massachusetts. Maud’s father, an aerospace engineer turned lawyer, was a book-smart man who extolled the virtues of slavery and obsessed over the “purity” of his family bloodline, which he traced back to the Revolutionary War. He tried in vain to control Maud’s mother, a whirlwind of charisma and passion given to feverish projects: thirty rescue cats, and a church in the family’s living room where she performed exorcisms.\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eTheir divorce, when it came, was a relief. Still, the meeting of her parents’ lines in Maud inspired an anxiety that she could not shake; a fear that she would replicate their damage. She saw similar anxieties in the lives of friends, in the works of writers and artists she admired. As obsessive in her own way as her parents, Maud researched her genealogy—her grandfather’s marriages, the accused witch, her ancestors’ roles in slavery and genocide–and sought family secrets through her DNA. But sunk in census archives and cousin matches, she yearned for deeper truths. Her journey took her into the realms of genetics, epigenetics, and the debates over intergenerational trauma. She mulled modernity’s dismissal of ancestors along with psychoanalytic and spiritual traditions that center them.\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eSearching, moving, and inspiring,\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eAncestor Trouble\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eis one writer’s attempt to use genealogy–a once-niche hobby that has grown into a multi-billion-dollar industry—to expose the secrets and contradictions of her own ancestors, and to argue for the transformational possibilities that reckoning with our ancestors has for all of us.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eMarch 29, 2022\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv data-testid=\"genresList\" class=\"BookPageMetadataSection__genres\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\n\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\n\u003cspan\u003eMaud Newton is a writer and critic. Her first book, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eAncestor Trouble: A Reckoning and a Reconciliation\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e (Random House), is a best book of 2022, according to \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker,\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e NPR, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eWashington Post,\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eTime,\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eBoston Globe\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eEsquire,\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eGarden \u0026amp; Gun,\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eEntertainment Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eAtlanta Journal-Constitution\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eChicago Tribune\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e. It was a \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Times Editors’ Choice\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e selection and Roxane Gay Book Club selection, and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle's 2023 John Leonard Prize for Best First Book. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eAncestor Trouble\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e has been called “a literary feat” by the \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e and a “brilliant mix of personal memoir and cultural observation” by the \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eBoston Globe.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e It was praised by \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eOprah Daily\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, NPR, the \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eVanity Fair\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eVulture\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, the \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eWired\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, and many other publications.\u003c\/span\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"FREEAIR Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47226577256770,"sku":"","price":11.17,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0730\/8735\/3154\/files\/ancestor.jpg?v=1698344700","url":"https:\/\/shop.freeairbooks.com\/products\/ancestor-trouble-a-reckoning-and-a-reconciliation-maud-newton","provider":"FREEAIR Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}