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All My Ancestors Had Sex
By Susan Emshwiller
Age Groups: 18+
How can you escape the Past when it holds the steering wheel?
Izzy is born into extreme privilege but she’s not the expected beautiful child. She’s a mess. A mishmash. More like a collage than a normal human. Different kinds of hair, skin tones, eye colors, and body types. Seems like her DNA didn’t get mixed.
At eighteen, Izzy implements her plan to save her ten-year-old brother from his predestined life as a rich white jerk—by kidnapping him. Absconding with the boy on this crazy road-trip mission, she doesn’t count on the interference of a badass motorcycle racing chick, a suffragette, a 1940s Fräulein, a gay southern gentleman, a gold-rush prostitute, a pregnant Scottish immigrant, and a WWII German soldier—each with their own agenda.
Traumas of sexual assault, starvation, disasters, and violence are seared into Izzy’s genes, and with the ancestors out for revenge, her life is in jeopardy. Or is she completely nuts?
ALL MY ANCESTORS HAD SEX is a surreal journey of self-discovery and healing told with compassion, humor, and humanity.
Formats
EBOOK, PAPERBACK
Reviews
RICHARD KRAUSS editor/publisher of The Digest Enthusiast
Susan Emshwiller’s new novel, I’m happy to say, lives up to its stellar title in every facet. It’s a rollicking, rocket’s blast chase caper, jammed with rich characters and affecting insights into the human condition. All My Ancestors Had Sex delivers a delightfully inventive cross-country thrill ride loaded with surprises and PTSD.
John Kessel, award-winning author of The Dark Ride and The Moon and the Other
Susan Emshwiller's All My Ancestors Had Sex is not like anything you have experienced before—unless you're an eighteen-year-old girl named Izzy and have kidnapped your monstrously privileged little brother and driven off in a reconditioned Metro Van to criss-cross the U.S. on a wild road trip, pursued by private eyes, and seeking a way to integrate the fragments of your broken personality. Oh, yes, you'd also have to contend with a half-dozen of your squabbling ancestors, all of whom trail their own tragic histories. In other words, baggage. Find out how Izzy manages to unload it all in this funny and very serious novel—with a heart. Then go and do likewise.
ANNE ANTHONY, author of A Blue Moon & Other Murmurs of the Heart
Susan Emshwiller’s riveting novel, All My Ancestors Had Sex, exploits genealogy as a springboard for a wild, funny, fast-paced tale of misfortune, mayhem, and unlikely redemption. Is this a thriller, a mystery, a romance, a historical novel? Like Izzy herself, it's a little bit of everything. An exhilarating read!!