The Original Daughter

The novel opens in May 2015 in Singapore, where 27-year-old Genevieve Yang lives with her mother, Su Yang, in a cramped one-bedroom Housing and Development Board (HDB) flat in the Bedok neighborhood. Su Yang, who previously survived aggressive breast cancer and a double mastectomy, has been diagnosed with leptomeningeal disease, a terminal condition affecting the membranes surrounding the brain. Her oncologist, Dana, estimates four to six weeks without treatment, and Su Yang refuses further intervention. Her sole request is that Genevieve contact her estranged adopted sister, Arin, a now-famous actress touring in Germany. Genevieve promises to call but has no intention of doing so, regarding her independence from Arin as the most precious thing she owns.

The narrative flashes back to 1996, when Genevieve is eight. Her paternal grandmother announces that Genevieve's grandfather, long presumed dead, secretly maintained a second family in Kedah, Malaysia. After his death, his other son, Wei Qiang, writes requesting the grandmother take in his youngest child, a seven-year-old girl named Arin. Genevieve's father, Wei Ming, a taxi driver, is resistant, but the grandmother, who owns the flat and holds authority over the household, has already agreed. Su Yang, who dropped out of university when pregnant and was disowned by her own parents, gently prepares Genevieve for the new arrival.

Arin arrives one June evening, delivered by her birth father, who also brings the grandfather's ashes in a cleaned-out peanut butter jar. Qiang leaves without looking back, and Ming gives up the bedroom. Arin refuses to speak for her first week, privately believing her father will return. Genevieve persists in befriending her, and Arin eventually breaks her silence. She bites Genevieve's finger in a private comfort ritual she calls her "secret friend" and addresses Genevieve as Jie Jie, meaning older sister. The grandmother's cruelty toward Arin, including calling her a half-wit, horrifies Genevieve, who impulsively promises to help Arin escape back to Malaysia. Their scheme collapses when they sneak behind the grandmother's shoji screen, a paper partition dividing her private space, and discover 17 letters revealing that Arin's relinquishment was a sustained negotiation rather than an impulsive decision. In a defiant act, Genevieve flushes the grandfather's ashes down the toilet. Ming sides with Genevieve but canes her severely; Arin watches each stroke without looking away. The grandmother declines rapidly and dies the following February. After her cremation, the girls sign a handwritten "Contract of Sisterhood," sealed with blood from their thumbs, declaring themselves sisters "forever and ever, till death do us part" (77). Genevieve confesses her fear that she killed the grandmother; Arin reassures her: "You saved me" (80).

By 2003, Su Yang has been fired from her library job and has reinvented herself at a neighborhood photocopy shop, bootlegging study guides from top schools. Genevieve declares this their "season of success." Then Arin wins a prestigious essay award for "Land of Opportunity," a raw piece about her abandonment in which Genevieve does not appear. Devastated, Genevieve channels her hurt into cruelty, befriending Penelope Wong, a wealthy classmate, to provoke Arin's jealousy. After a confrontation on Christmas Eve, Arin disappears for several days and is found nearly drowned at Woodlands Waterfront Park, having attempted to swim across the strait to Malaysia.

Genevieve enters the most prestigious junior college in Singapore but struggles academically for the first time. A public confrontation between Su Yang and Su Yang's own mother at the photocopy shop exposes the family's secrets, including that Ming has maintained an emotional friendship with a woman he ferries to dialysis appointments. The scandal brands him a philanderer, and in October 2006, he leaves the family without saying goodbye.

Genevieve fails her A-Level mathematics and begins working at a neighborhood ice cream shop while Arin achieves a perfect score and wins a university scholarship. When Arin asks to audition for a YouTube gaming channel, Genevieve gives her 350 dollars as an investment. Arin's debut is an immediate success, her quiet charm captivating viewers by the hundreds of thousands. Genevieve recognizes that Arin's on-screen persona mirrors social strategies Genevieve herself developed. Genevieve secretly rebuilds a relationship with her father through clandestine meetings, but when the meetings are exposed, Arin returns the 350 dollars in crisp new notes, severing their bond.

With help from Penelope, who rewrites her CV, Genevieve secures a secretarial job at an architecture firm in Christchurch, New Zealand. On the eve of departure, Arin presents the Contract of Sisterhood and pleads with Genevieve to stay, but Genevieve refuses. After discovering that Su Yang secretly emailed her employer begging them to release her from the contract, Genevieve blocks her mother's phone number and email upon landing.

In Christchurch, Genevieve works at the firm and part-time at Insomnia, an independent cinema. She and Arin resume Skype conversations, and Arin reports being cast in an indie film called The Lecturer. The news triggers a crisis in Genevieve. Walking home in distress, she is accosted by a teenage boy who pushes her against a fence and grabs her breast. The assault destabilizes her; she begins compulsively digging her nails into her palms. She calls Arin, who flies to Christchurch within three days and stays for 10, drawing out Genevieve's trauma through patient conversations while reading her film script each night.

At the film's premiere at Insomnia in February 2011, Genevieve watches the central assault scene and is horrified: Arin's character digs her nails into her palms during the attack, replicating the exact self-harm pattern Genevieve developed. Genevieve realizes Arin used the visit not only to comfort her but to study her trauma responses for the role. She sends a furious text. The next day, the devastating February 22 Christchurch earthquake strikes, killing 185 people. Genevieve survives but refuses Arin's calls for days, letting Arin believe she may have died. When she finally responds, she issues an ultimatum: If Arin stays in her life, Genevieve will vanish; if Arin leaves, Genevieve will return to their mother. Arin agrees to go.

Genevieve returns to Singapore to find her mother diminished. She works as a roadshow promoter selling phone plans, cares for Su Yang through the breast cancer that goes into remission, and tracks Arin's rising fame from a distance. She discovers Su Yang has been secretly collecting newspaper clippings about Arin and throws the album away, prompting their only direct confrontation about the separation. In 2015, the leptomeningeal disease is diagnosed, bringing the narrative back to the novel's opening.

Su Yang collapses at the photocopy shop and is hospitalized. Genevieve discovers that her mother buried both daughters' childhood teeth in the soil of a houseplant, a hidden memorial. Ming visits and asks how long Genevieve intends to keep punishing her mother. Dana urges her to act. Genevieve finally calls Arin.

Arin flies from Berlin within 17 hours and has Su Yang moved to a private ward. Su Yang briefly opens her eyes on the third day but does not register Arin's presence. She dies quietly, her breathing simply stopping, with Genevieve, Arin, and Ming at her bedside.

At the cremation, Arin and Genevieve speak for the last time. Arin tells Genevieve she always chose her and asks why Genevieve, who had all the love in the world, could not choose Arin in return. Genevieve apologizes, but Arin asks her not to offer belated gestures of love. She thanks Genevieve "for letting me go" (342), gets into a waiting car, and leaves.

Alone in the empty apartment, Genevieve goes through childhood tins stored under the bed. Every artifact of their shared life remains except the blood-signed Contract of Sisterhood. Arin has taken it. Genevieve cannot determine whether Arin kept it as a keepsake or a severance. Standing in the room, she allows herself to hope: "Stay your heart, wait for me. Let us fail again" (347). She takes a step toward the door.