Weidenfeld & Nicolson scoops Wei’s literary debut

Alexa von Hirschberg, publishing director at Weidenfeld & Nicolson, has acquired UK and Commonwealth rights for The Original Daughter by Jemimah Wei from Jessica Bullock at The Wylie Agency. US rights were sold to Lee Boudreaux at Doubleday.

The Original Daughter is a literary debut set in working-class Singapore about an intoxicating relationship between two sisters over two decades. It will publish in spring 2025.

The synopsis says: “Without warning, Genevieve Yang’s life is upended one night when her grandfather’s secret second family deposits a terrified child into their lives. This new interloper, Arin, causes ripples within the family but is cautiously welcomed by Gen, and the girls soon become deeply entwined.

“Yet, as the sisters struggle towards individual redemption in a rapidly modernising and brutally competitive environment where academic achievement and personal excellence are prized above all else, they must fight to hold onto each other even as circumstances force them to reinvent themselves over and over again.”

Von Hirschberg said: “The Original Daughter is an accomplished and captivating debut that immediately got under my skin. Imagine My Brilliant Friend [Europa] but set in working-class Singapore. It has an intensity and emotional depth I found riveting. Jemimah Wei is a literary voice to be reckoned with.”

Wei added: “In this ever more efficient world, I’m invested in life’s unquantifiables – our daydreams, unutterable hopes and fears, relationships, and play – and what we sacrifice at the altar of ambition. At its heart, The Original Daughter is a book about longing and belonging: how do negotiate the constant tension between our need for independence and intimacy as we forge meaningful lives?

“This book is so close to my heart, and I am happy that she has found a passionate champion in Alexa and the stellar W&N team. It means the world to me that The Original Daughter will be published in the UK and beyond.”

Wei is a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. Her fiction has won the William Van Dyke Short Story Prize, been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and has been published in Guernica and Narrative, among others.