“Extraordinary and wide-ranging . . . a literary feat that simultaneously builds and excavates identity.”—The New York Times Book Review
New York Times Editors’ Choice • Roxane Gay’s Audacious Book Club Pick • Finalist for the 2023 John Leonard Prize • An acclaimed writer goes searching for the truth about her complicated Southern family—and finds that our obsession with ancestors opens up new ways of seeing ourselves—in this “brilliant mix of personal memoir and cultural observation” (The Boston Globe).
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New Yorker, NPR, Time, Entertainment Weekly, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Esquire, Garden & Gun
Maud Newton’s ancestors have fascinated her since she was a girl. Her mother’s father was said to have married thirteen times. Her mother’s grandfather killed a man with a hay hook. Mental illness and religious fanaticism percolated through Maud’s maternal lines back to an ancestor accused of being a witch in Puritan-era Massachusetts.
Newton’s family inspired in her a desire to understand family patterns: what we are destined to replicate and what we can leave behind. She set out to research her genealogy—her grandfather’s marriages, the accused witch, her ancestors’ roles in slavery and other harms. Her journey took her into the realms of genetics, epigenetics, and debates over intergenerational trauma. She mulled over modernity’s dismissal of ancestors along with psychoanalytic and spiritual traditions that center them.
Searching and inspiring, Ancestor Trouble is one writer’s attempt to use genealogy—a once-niche hobby that has grown into a multi-billion-dollar industry—to make peace with the secrets and contradictions of her family’s past and face its reverberations in the present, and to argue for the transformational possibilities that reckoning with our ancestors offers all of us.
“A family story isn’t just about the people (even when they’re this colorful), and Newton touches on intergenerational trauma, mental illness, the influence of religion and more.” — The New York Times
“[A] powerful debut.” – Oprah Daily
“In grappling with her history, Newton explores intergenerational trauma, genetics and epigenetics, considering all the ways in which getting to know our ancestors can help us gain perspective on ourselves.” — Time
“Ancestor Trouble does what all truly great memoirs do: It takes an intensely personal and at times idiosyncratic story and uses it to frame larger, more complex questions about how identity is formed.” — The New Republic
“Newton is a logical thinker and a hyperacute observer, with a prodigious memory and a lacerating honesty. She’s a transparent and at times lyrical writer.” —Los Angeles Times
“With the rigor of a historian and the voice of a mystery writer, Newton pulls the reader into a philosophical exploration of trauma and heritage. . . . A magisterial memoir.” — The Observer
“From a grandfather known to have had 13 marriages to ancestors with mental illnesses to a relative accused of being a witch in Puritanical Massachusetts, her research will keep you hooked (and have you planning your own family tree analysis).” — CNN
“Riveting . . . Masterfully blending memoir and cultural criticism, Newton explores the cultural, scientific, and spiritual dimensions of ancestry, arguing for the transformational power of grappling with our inheritances.” — Esquire
“Captivating . . . Wide learning and roving speculation distinguish Ancestor Trouble.” — Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“A passionate memoir and investigation of inheritance and bloodlines. . . . [A] fascinating, well written book.” — Minneapolis Star Tribune
“An unflinching exploration into the history of a troubled family tree and the universal but also peculiarly American need to discover ‘roots.’” — The Millions
“Exhaustively researched, engagingly presented, and glowing with intelligence and honesty.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“[An] intricately researched account of the most universal subject.” — Literary Hub
“Newton investigates current theories regarding DNA analysis, inherited trauma, and psychological profiling with Sherlockian verve and an academician’s tenacity. Genealogy sleuths often undertake such quests hoping to discover hidden gems buried deep in those census records, such as a direct link to aristocracy or a Founding Father. Newton is just looking for some peace of mind, and her approach may help others realize what a worthy goal that is.” — Booklist
“[A] masterful mix of memoir and cultural criticism that wrestles with America’s ancestry through her own family’s complex past . . . . a transfixing meditation on the inextricable ways the past informs the present.” — Publishers Weekly
“Ancestor Trouble is a memoir like no other I’ve ever read: it’s an addictive mystery story, an unflinching examination of America’s darkest history, and a plangent meditation on the power of long-buried secrets to assert themselves in our lives. With astonishing erudition and empathy, Maud Newton has woven together sociology, science, and her own genealogical sleuthing to craft a narrative at once universal and intensely personal. A haunting, thought-provoking, and utterly mesmerizing book.” — Abbott Kahler, New York Times bestselling author (as Karen Abbott) of The Ghosts of Eden Park
“Ancestor Trouble is a superbly written and meticulously researched book about the people and stories that shape us. Through careful examination of census records, genealogy, and DNA data, Maud Newton patiently excavates her family’s troubled history, revealing how the past continues to inform the present, in ways that are sometimes invisible to us. An extraordinary work.” — Laila Lalami, author of The Other Americans
“One of the most uncompromising and compassionate books about the tangled web that binds us to our past. Maud Newton writes with fierce brilliance about family, racism, mental illness, and the personal and national burdens of history. What do we owe our ancestors? How much of their sins become our responsibilities? In this magnificent book, Newton refuses to look away from her most intimate and painful moments, and in the process she leads us towards a vision of what individual and national healing might look like. Startling in scope and breadth, Ancestor Trouble firmly establishes Newton as one of our most exciting — and necessary — writers.” — Maaza Mengiste, author of The Shadow King, shortlisted for the Booker Prize
“Ancestor Trouble lifts the veil between our present moment and past generations, some long buried, who shape our lives whether we realize it or not. With cultural analysis, global historical contexts, and her own compelling hunt for family history, Maud Newton invites us to consider our ancestors with a reverence Western thought often forgets.” — Sarah Smarsh, New York Times bestselling author of Heartland
“Whether they are writers, womanizers, preachers, or enslavers, Maud Newton soberly reckons with her ancestors in this absorbing narrative, as addictive as genealogy itself. In reflections ranging from the scientific to the spiritual, Newton builds a bridge between her and her ancestors that is fascinating, deeply moving, and sure to make every reader want to spend some time with their kin.” — Dionne Ford, co-editor of Slavery’s Descendants: Shared Legacies of Race and Reconciliation
“I’ve been searching for this book a long time, one that would help make sense of my own complicated family history. Newton’s incredibly smart hybrid of a memoir is essential reading for anyone interested in learning more about themselves through the prism of the past — which is to say, nearly everyone. I can’t wait to share this with my family.” — Garrard Conley, New York Times bestselling author of Boy Erased
“You can’t make this stuff up, and in this beautifully written memoir, Maud Newton doesn’t have to. She brings a historian’s rigor to the pursuit of family lore that has, by design or accident, shed significant details along the way. The story of an ancestor who murdered a man with a hay hook is not, as it turns out, that simple. The end result, a triumph, is two books in one: an accessible guide to genealogy and the harrowing saga of an American family steeped in intergenerational trauma. I will be feeling the aftershocks of this book for some time.” — Alexis Coe, New York Times bestselling author of You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George Washington
“Here is a wise and unsparing journey through many generations of one family. Here, Maud Newton searches through dusty, historical records and listens to elders’ storytelling voices. She’s determined to understand her ancestors, their grit, their tenderness— and sometimes, their ugly actions that make her question the blood that runs through her veins. And here, in Ancestor Trouble: A Reckoning and a Reconciliation, Newton takes this extraordinary journey not only for herself, but to illuminate this present moment in this country we all love. ‘Look,’ she tells us. ‘This is America. This is how we came to be.’” — Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, New York Times bestselling author of The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois
“Who are our ancestors to us? What do we inherit from them, and how do we grapple with their legacy? I can imagine no one better to explore this territory than Maud Newton, with her keen, agile mind and her brave, beautiful heart. Ancestor Trouble drills deep into the roots and bones of Newton’s own family, and is a roadmap for all of us who long to understand, at the deepest level, where we come from.” — Dani Shapiro, New York Times bestselling author of Inheritance
“A marvel: absorbing, addictive, informative.” — Louisa Ermelino, Publishers Weekly
