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My Mother's Daughter: Finding Myself in My Family's Fractured Past
From the journalist and author of Want Me (an NPR Best Book of the Year) comes a “tender, revelatory, and deeply moving” (Amanda Montei, Touched Out) story of family secrets, sisterhood, and the importance of untangling all that we inherit from our mothers.
Tracy Clark-Flory had a sister out there, somewhere. She knew that her mom, Deb, was sent to a home for unwed mothers as a pregnant teenager in the Sixties. After placing her baby for adoption, Deb was committed to a mental institution in her grief. Decades later, she had Tracy, who grew up as an only child longing for her sister. Now, in her thirties and a mother herself, Tracy takes a DNA test in hopes of finding her sister—and she does.
Newly connected with her half-sister Kathy, both daughters start asking questions about the past that their mom, who had died years earlier, could no longer answer. Tracy sets out to make sense of what happened back in 1965. She learns that their mom was pulled into a racist and sexist system designed to turn “bad girls” into proper women and wives. Tracy realizes that her own life has been profoundly shaped by her mom’s past, but she also uncovers a bigger story about patriarchal control, mother-daughter dynamics, and the way that shame keeps us divided—both within ourselves and from each other.
Blending powerful memoir with cultural criticism, My Mother’s Daughter is a moving, intimate tale of traumatic inheritance and intergenerational healing.
Tracy Clark-Flory had a sister out there, somewhere. She knew that her mom, Deb, was sent to a home for unwed mothers as a pregnant teenager in the Sixties. After placing her baby for adoption, Deb was committed to a mental institution in her grief. Decades later, she had Tracy, who grew up as an only child longing for her sister. Now, in her thirties and a mother herself, Tracy takes a DNA test in hopes of finding her sister—and she does.
Newly connected with her half-sister Kathy, both daughters start asking questions about the past that their mom, who had died years earlier, could no longer answer. Tracy sets out to make sense of what happened back in 1965. She learns that their mom was pulled into a racist and sexist system designed to turn “bad girls” into proper women and wives. Tracy realizes that her own life has been profoundly shaped by her mom’s past, but she also uncovers a bigger story about patriarchal control, mother-daughter dynamics, and the way that shame keeps us divided—both within ourselves and from each other.
Blending powerful memoir with cultural criticism, My Mother’s Daughter is a moving, intimate tale of traumatic inheritance and intergenerational healing.
288 pages, Hardcover
Published May 5, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
May 9, 2026
My goodness, what a treasure of a memoir.
Review of advance copy received from Author
Just like the cover blurb promised, I cried! In a good way!
What a joyous, layered, glorious account of love and family, connection and forgiveness, and the threads of history and trauma passed on from our parents. Although my own family history is very different from the author's, I somehow related to almost every turn. What sorcery is that!?
Every page made me more and more invested in Tracy's discovery and I felt well so well-taken care of as a reader. Like, she wanted me there, every step, along with her. She never held back in sharing her vulnerability, fear, and hope. I was all-in from the first page and I rooted for her from start to finish. I felt like I was sitting in the room with every single character she wrote about. They were all vibrating off the page! The living and no-longer living!
I was blown away by the depth of this story, which its masterfully layered with relevant historical details, societal context, and the propulsive momentum of the mystery. I'm in awe of how beautifully the book honored both her mother -- and herself. This book is a masterclass in honoring our impulses to make sense of the world, even when everything tells us to stand down and simply accept what we've been told about how it works, and to trust the way "things have always been." The Truth is vital and healing and this makes the case for that in such a profoundly meaningful way. An incredible book!
What a joyous, layered, glorious account of love and family, connection and forgiveness, and the threads of history and trauma passed on from our parents. Although my own family history is very different from the author's, I somehow related to almost every turn. What sorcery is that!?
Every page made me more and more invested in Tracy's discovery and I felt well so well-taken care of as a reader. Like, she wanted me there, every step, along with her. She never held back in sharing her vulnerability, fear, and hope. I was all-in from the first page and I rooted for her from start to finish. I felt like I was sitting in the room with every single character she wrote about. They were all vibrating off the page! The living and no-longer living!
I was blown away by the depth of this story, which its masterfully layered with relevant historical details, societal context, and the propulsive momentum of the mystery. I'm in awe of how beautifully the book honored both her mother -- and herself. This book is a masterclass in honoring our impulses to make sense of the world, even when everything tells us to stand down and simply accept what we've been told about how it works, and to trust the way "things have always been." The Truth is vital and healing and this makes the case for that in such a profoundly meaningful way. An incredible book!
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Thank you, NetGalley and Gallery Books for allowing me to read the book early. The opinion in this review is my own.
This was a beautiful and thought provoking memoir. It seems poignant even now with the changes in reproductive rights women are currently dealing with. Even though what happened in the 60s is in the past, in some ways it feels like it could be our future.
Two half sisters reunite after the passing of their mother. They’re trying to make a timeline to how things ended up the way they did without their mother being there to answer questions. They find so many things that should never have happened, but with the way the world was at that time, these kinds of events were somewhat commonplace. This book is eye opening and I recommend it to anyone interested in reproductive rights and racial issues that shaped the world we live in today.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
This book is an absolute, no-question must read, especially for moms, daughters and sisters. The writing is vivid, and the storytelling is brave and full of grace. The author gives us an extremely deft and inspired examination of the love and mysteries between moms and their children. She's very self-aware and has a steady hand as a storyteller, which is essential in a story with this much mystery, grief, joy, and other big emotions. What came to mind after reading this was the phrase "delicate and sacred—and as solid as a rock." The story itself is so, so delicate, almost like lace--but she tells it with so much sureness and not a drop of sentimentality that the end result is as strong as iron. Really, really wonderful. Can't wait to share with other women!
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
This was a beautiful, intimate, and moving memoir of the journey the author took as she uncovered a mystery in her family history that needed to be revealed. Reading this was transformative. It offers a deep, emotional look at the bonds between mothers and daughters, and between sisters. Years after her mother died, the author, Tracy, takes a DNA test and finds her sister. But it’s so much more than just discovering a long-lost sister. Tracy’s journey to discover what her mother went through as an unwed mother in Chicago is one of emotion and deep complexity. This is a memoir well worth reading. Tracy’s story will stay with you long after the last page. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an advance copy. All opinions are my own.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
My Mother's Daughter is a tender, revelatory, and deeply moving look at how family is shaped in the shadows of patriarchal power. Tracy probes her own history with curiosity and openness, expanding the possibilities of both grief and inheritance, even when they are touched by reproductive control. By unearthing her mother's story, Tracy steps into the light and creates something altogether new. Defiant, transformative, and incredibly timely, this book will forever change how you understand motherhood, love, and the power of sisterhood.
May 5, 2026
What an incredible exploration of the personal and the political through the lens of adoption. This is a triumph of weaving Tracy's mother's history, that becomes her own, into racial, gendered, and class dynamics of the 60s and 70s that led to so many women going to Homes for Unwed Mothers and being disciplined back into "good womanhood." So many women were traumatized. So many daughters have been living with the shadows of it all. This book pulls back the curtain.
Review of advance copy received from Author
This book is a timely reminder that the ugly history of misogyny that has been used to shame and control women for decades, is still very much a part of the world we live in today. And that recognizing where that shame comes from and who it really serves (as Clark-Flory so beautifully exposes in this work), is essential to liberating us (all of us) from it.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
This is such an interesting story -- beautifully and fluidly written! The author weaves between her own family's fascinating past and the important and hidden history of girls forced to have babies and give them up for adoption. Easy to read but hard to stop thinking about!
Review of advance copy received from Author
Wholly engrossing and beautifully rendered, this memoir is not only a poignant journey for the author but for the reader as well. You will find yourself changed by reading Clark-Flory's account of finding herself.
Review of advance copy received from Author
In this gripping, beautifully written memoir, Tracy Clark-Flory tracks down her half-sister, who had been adopted shortly after birth. But _My Mother's Daughter_ is more than just the author's journey - it also retraces her mother's steps, from a college romance to a home for unwed mothers. Clark-Flory skillfully toggles between her personal story to a broader indictment of sexual shame and double standards. A must-read for mothers, daughters, sisters, and anyone with a complicated family history.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews