Maud Newton writes with fierce brilliance about family, racism, mental illness, and the personal and national burdens of history.

“One of the most uncompromising and compassionate books about the tangled web that binds us to our past.

An extraordinary work.” - Laila Lalami, author of The Other Americans 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.

Ancestor Trouble is a superbly written and meticulously researched book about the people and stories that shape us.

A haunting, thought-provoking, and utterly mesmerizing book.“ - Abbott Kahler, New York Times bestselling author (as Karen Abbott) of The Ghosts of Eden Park 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.

“ 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.

Time is our mink, our Lexus, our mansion.” I’m grateful beyond measure to each of them, knowing, as Alexander Chee has said, that “writers are often terrifying to normal people” because there’s “almost nothing they will not sell in order to have the time to write.

In the order received, here are some positive words about my upcoming book, Ancestor Trouble, from writers I admire who took time from their own important work to craft this praise: Abbott Kahler, Laila Lalami, Maaza Mengiste, Sarah Smarsh, and Dionne Ford.

Ancestor trouble book