Ancestor Trouble

A Reckoning and a Reconciliation

By: Maud Newton

Narrated by: Catherine Taber

Length: 11 hrs and 14 mins

Publisher's summary

An acclaimed writer goes searching for the truth about her wildly unconventional Southern family - and finds that our obsession with ancestors opens up new ways of seeing ourselves.

“A road map for all of us who long to understand, at the deepest level, where we come from.” (Dani Shapiro, author of Inheritance)

One of the Most Anticipated Books of 2022 - Oprah Daily, Time, Esquire, The Millions, The Week, Thrillist, She Reads, Lit Hub, BookPage

Maud Newton’s ancestors have vexed and fascinated her since she was a girl. Her mother’s father, who came of age in Texas during the Great Depression, was said to have married 13 times and been shot by one of his wives. Her mother’s grandfather killed a man with a hay hook and died in an institution. Mental illness and religious fanaticism percolated through Maud’s maternal lines back to an ancestor accused of being a witch in Puritan-era Massachusetts. Maud’s father, an aerospace engineer turned lawyer, was an educated man who extolled the virtues of slavery and obsessed over the “purity” of his family bloodline, which he traced back to the Revolutionary War. He tried in vain to control Maud’s mother, a whirlwind of charisma and passion given to feverish projects: 30 rescue cats, and a church in the family’s living room where she performed exorcisms.

Their divorce, when it came, was a relief. Still, the meeting of her parents’ lines in Maud inspired an anxiety that she could not shake, a fear that she would replicate their damage. She saw similar anxieties in the lives of friends, in the works of writers and artists she admired. As obsessive in her own way as her parents, Maud researched her genealogy - her grandfather’s marriages, the accused witch, her ancestors’ roles in slavery and genocide - and sought family secrets through her DNA. But immersed in census archives and cousin matches, she yearned for deeper truths. Her journey took her into the realms of genetics, epigenetics, and the debates over intergenerational trauma. She mulled over modernity’s dismissal of ancestors along with psychoanalytic and spiritual traditions that center them.

Searching, moving, and inspiring, Ancestor Trouble is one writer’s attempt to use genealogy - a once-niche hobby that has grown into a multi-billion-dollar industry - to expose the secrets and contradictions of her own ancestors, and to argue for the transformational possibilities that reckoning with our ancestors offers all of us.

*Includes a downloadable PFD of the family trees from the book

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2022 Maud Newton (P)2022 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"A family story isn’t just about the people (even when they’re this colorful), and Newton touches on intergenerational trauma, mental illness, the influence of religion and more.” -The New York Times

“In grappling with her history, Newton explores intergenerational trauma, genetics and epigenetics, considering all the ways in which getting to know our ancestors can help us gain perspective on ourselves.” -Time

“Riveting . . . Masterfully blending memoir and cultural criticism, Newton explores the cultural, scientific, and spiritual dimensions of ancestry, arguing for the transformational power of grappling with our inheritances.” -Esquire

Well-Researched Exploration of all Things Ancestral

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. As I am completing my practitioner training as an Ancestral Healing practitioner I found it especially pertinent and enriching. The author does a great job of telling stories as she investigates her ancestry and how its themes run through her life‘s experiences.

I especially love the part towards the end when she goes to the Ancestral Healing workshop as that is the exact work that I am studying. I felt she did an excellent job describing the work and her experience of it.

I learned a tremendous amount about the science and the spirituality and the cultural relevance of Ancestry. Overall an extremely intelligent and well researched book on the current state of ancestry exploration.

Thorough research, flowing clear writing & thoughtful conclusions

I learned a lot about different aspects of being physically related to people from the intensive and broad reading Newton used to think and write about her relationships with her own family and ancestors. It’s a thought provoking and useful book in anyone’s efforts to do the same. She is realistic about the troublesome parts of her heritage; her conclusions compassionate and wise.

Unique perspective

The story is a good tie in to the historical and religious perspectives. Easy listen.

Aptly named

Loved it. Story amd narration exquisite. This work changes my outlook on my oersonal family research.

Compelling personal story

This is my favorite non fiction book of the year. I highly recommend it. 5 stars.

Fascinating and Personal Story

The author invites us to “sit a spell” and visit with her colorful southern ancestors of dubious distinction as she recounts her journey down the rabbit hole of genealogical research in pursuit of self-understanding. Poignant and tragic by turns, Maud Newton’s personal family history is filled with characters as interesting and inspiring as they are incorrigible and unforgiving. Like so many of our own ancestors, Newton’s continue to inspire her, from the pages of dusty library books and family albums, to continue the important work of self-reflection and improvement, working to fulfill the aspirations of all those generations who’ve come before us.

Crazy Evil Parents = Crazy Author

Hearing about her incredibly insane and evil parents was shocking and therefore interesting, and she found interesting nuggets about her ancestors, too. But the rest was just self-involved blah blah blah boring. Narrator had a “put upon” voice and her Southern accents were just bad.

Ancestors boring!

Nothing is more boring than another person's genealogy. This one has interesting parts but in no way enough to sustain a whole book. And the reader does a poor job with reading characters and Southern accents - she grates. I gave up after 13 chapters. Whatever the mystery of her family was that prompted this meandering tale, I just don't have the stamina.