Ami McKay

Ami McKay is the author of three internationally bestselling novels – The Birth House, The Virgin Cure and The Witches of New York – and the novella, Half Spent Was the Night. A former freelance radio journalist, in 2001 she wrote and produced a documentary, also called Daughter of Family G, that traced her decision to undergo genetic testing. It was the Silver winner at the Atlantic Journalism Awards, was nominated for a Gabriel Award, and aired on both The Sunday Edition on CBC Radio and on National Public Radio in the U.S. Her non-fiction has also appeared in Elle Canada, The Independent, Canadian Living, and Chatelaine. Born and raised in Indiana, McKay now lives in Nova Scotia.

Website: amimckay.com
Twitter: @sideshowami
Instagram: @sideshowami

How do you turn a tale of cancer genetics gone mad into a surreal and beautiful story of love and resilience and genealogy and history? Daughter of Family G is more than a memoir – it manages to unfold and examine all of our pasts… I wanted to follow Ami to her house and sit at her kitchen table and ask her a hundred questions.” — Jann Arden

FESTIVAL BOOK

Daughter of Family G

Weaving together family history, genetic discovery, and scenes from her life, Ami McKay tells the compelling, true-scientific story of her own family’s unsettling legacy of hereditary cancer while exploring the challenges that come from carrying the mutation that not only killed many people you loved, but might also kill you.

In 2001, as a young mother with two sons and a keen interest in survival, Ami McKay was among the first to be tested for Lynch Syndrome. She had a feeling she’d test positive: her mother’s side of the family was riddled with early deaths and her own mother was being treated for the disease. When the test proved her fears true, she began living in “an unsettling state between wellness and cancer,” and she’s been there ever since. Intimate, candid, and probing, her genetic memoir tells a fascinating story, teasing out the many ways to live with the hand you are dealt.