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A memoir about four generations of women whose lives illuminate a century of American history, by the author of Richard and Judy Book Club pick Sugar

On her second birthday in 1967, Bernice McFadden died. She was in a car crash on the motorway turnoff to Detroit. For a few minutes, she was clinically dead. From the moment of her resuscitation, we follow a remarkable life, all the way up to the publication of her first novel, Sugar.

In 80s Brooklyn, growing up in terror of her alcoholic father, young Bernice loses herself in books. But it’s not until she reads Alice Walker and Toni Morrison, stories about ‘messy, beautiful, joyful Black people’ so reminiscent of her loved ones, that she sees herself within their pages.

Bernice’s family story begins in Sandersville, Georgia, with freedwoman Louisa Vicey Wilson in 1870. Her descendants survived Reconstruction, Jim Crow, joined the ‘great migration’, cried when Dr King was assassinated during The Civil Rights Movement. Wisdom, secrets, and fierce love are passed down through generations of women like Lou’s handmade quilt.

Tracing her roots gives Bernice the strength to write her own story. A memoir of many threads, Firstborn Girls is an extraordinarily moving account of a life shaped both by family history and a drive to be something more.

'Riveting... one of America’s most creative and necessary writers' SAPPHIRE

'McFadden’s ability to tell a story makes this one of the most engrossing memoirs I have read in a long time… People will talk about these First Born Girls for years to come!' TARANA BURKE, activist and author of Unbound

'Remarkable... Firstborn Girls is an absolute treasure' DEESHA PHILYAW, author of The Secret Lives of Church Ladies

© Bernice McFadden 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025