The Many Daughters of Afong Moy: can trauma be passed down through DNA?

The Many Daughters of Afong Moy by Jamie Ford is a story that spans generations and across time. Dorothy Moy channels her dissociative episodes and mental health struggles into her poetry. When her daughter, Annabel, begins to exhibit the same behaviors and starts to remember the lives of their ancestors, Dorothy decides to seek radical help. Not wanting her daughter to suffer from the same depression she does, Dorothy agrees to an experimental treatment designed to weaken inherited trauma. Through this treatment, she connects with past generations of women in her family. From Faye Moy, a nurse in China serving with the Flying Tigers, to Lai King Moy, a girl quarantined in San Francisco during a plague epidemic to Afong Moy, the first Chinese woman to set foot in America. She also discovers that in each time period, someone is looking for her. Someone who has loved her through her genetic memories. Can she break the cycle of pain and find peace for herself and her daughter? 

The Many Daughters of Afong Moy is a very difficult book to read. Jumping back and forth through time from 1836 to 2085 and five different points of view, the main theme of the story is the idea of epigenetics. Epigenetics is the study of heritable phenotype changes that occur but do not involve alterations to the DNA sequence. In simple terms, it is the study of how behaviors and environment change the way genes work. Even simpler, it is trauma that is passed on like a physical trait. I understand the concept but I feel that it is more family dynamics and behaviors are altered and then passed down rather than through DNA itself. I’ve read other books that use this idea. The jumping back and forth was confusing and disorientating. There was very little opportunity to get an understanding of a character before it was off to another. Overall, I did not enjoy The Many Daughters of Afong Moy even though the premise intrigued me. I do not recommend The Many Daughters of Afong Moy. 

The Many Daughters of Afong Moy is available in hardcover, eBook, and audiobook