Firstborn Girls Audiobook By Bernice L. McFadden cover art

Firstborn Girls

A Memoir

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for $0.00
Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 3 months. Cancel anytime.

Firstborn Girls

By: Bernice L. McFadden
Narrated by: Robin Miles, Bernice L. McFadden
Try for $0.00

$0.00/mo. after 3 months. Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $20.25

Buy for $20.25

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use, License, and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

From award-winning author and creative writing professor at Tulane University comes an intimate and powerful memoir exploring inherited trauma, family secrets, and the enduring bonds of love between mothers and daughters.

On her second birthday in 1967, Bernice McFadden died in a car crash near Detroit, only to be resuscitated after her mother pulled her from the flaming wreckage. Firstborn Girls traces her remarkable life from that moment up to the publication of her first novel, Sugar.

Growing up in 1980s Brooklyn, Bernice finds solace in books, summer trips to Barbados, and boarding school to escape her alcoholic father. Discovering the works of Alice Walker and Toni Morrison, she finally sees herself and her loved ones reflected in their stories of “messy, beautiful, joyful Black people.”

Interwoven with Bernice's personal journey is her family's history, beginning with her four-times enslaved great-grandmother Louisa Vicey Wilson in 1822 Hancock County, Georgia. Her descendants survived Reconstruction and Jim Crow, joined the Great Migration, and mourned Dr. King’s assassination during the Civil Rights Movement. These women's wisdom, secrets, and fierce love are passed down like Louisa's handmade quilt.

A memoir of many threads, Firstborn Girls is an extraordinarily moving portrait of a life shaped by family, history, and the drive to be something more.

©2025 Bernice L. McFadden (P)2025 Penguin Audio Art & Literature Authors Memoir Civil rights Royalty Caribbean

Critic reviews

“A distinguished novelist explores the history that shaped her and the women in her family. . . . A powerful, richly tapestried book about race, history, love, and the healing power of the written word.”—Kirkus

“Novelist McFadden delivers the captivating, multigenerational stories of her family in a poignant memoir.”—Booklist

“In her remarkable memoir, Bernice McFadden revisits the chaos of girlhood and her journeys as a mother, daughter, and writer, all beneath the specter of white supremacy, patriarchy, and domestic violence. Hailing from generations of hard-loving, bold, flawed Black women, McFadden’s recounting of their lives and intimacies is masterful and mesmerizing. Fueled by compassion and anger, resilience and curiosity, McFadden reveals family secrets, strivings, and struggles, against the backdrop of our country’s long legacy of racial injustice. Revelatory and enthralling, Firstborn Girls is an absolute treasure.”—Deesha Philyaw, author of The Secret Lives of Church Ladies
Powerful Storytelling • Transparent Vulnerability • Elegant Writing • Intimate Conversation • Refreshing Narrative
Highly rated for:
All stars
Most relevant  
I loveBernice McFaddens work and this was byfar the best book I had read this year. I felt like I knew all the people she wrote about and could relate. This book caused me to think and act.

Best Memoir Ever! Seriously

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Loved the story subject and how well it flowed. Kept me captivated and intrigued to continue. The voice of the reader was also soothing

First Born Girls

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This book spoke to my soul. I love how she told her truth entwining it with history. I felt her when she said I’m tired of not speaking the truth well something like that and starting speaking about the secrets in her family. Every family has skeletons in their closet. As a child we were took to not repeat anything and not to say what goes on in your home. This memoir was her truth! I love listening to how the narrator made each page come to life. You want be disappointed. A GREAT READ!!!!!

Oh What A Read

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Thank you for sharing so vunerablay and openly. Grateful for your strength and gifts that we get to witness.

Wow! Felt like a movie.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
this is one of the best memoirs that I've ever read. I felt so attached to the author and all of her family members. fantastic storytelling. Bernice McFadden is one of my favorite authors

Outstanding

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This is a deeply honest memoir that often reads like a conversation (I love those). The author gives such a transparent look into her life as the eldest daughter, the pressures of her family and love life, her responsibilities and her journey to becoming a writer. Throughout the book, she displays superb story-telling and vulnerability. This is definitely a well-written story that pulls the reader in and makes one excited for her wins. (And I also remembered seeing her brother on In Living Color and Martin). 😊

Great Read!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I related so much to her story. Not so much the family trauma but I guess because we are the same age born the same month just 6 days apart, every referenced memory took me back to were I was or what I was doing during that time in my life; the music, the childhood games, the movies the political stuff, took me back to my memories of that time.

I once had the notion that I wanted to be a writer. I think because I loved books so much. I'd day dream about my book and my characters, but I'd never attempted that dream. I did however; write a couple of black history month plays while in the military and produced a show or two on the base. It was so fulfilling. Maybe if I hadn't spent 22 years in the army, I may have set that as a goal to reach.

The part about going to the office to get public assistance hit me like a brick and brought back a memory, I'd long forgotten. I had my first child at 19 and I hated to ask for help primarily because the way they treat you, but I had to. I'd witnessed that type of behavior from the state employees because I'd been to those offices with my mother while growing up. Like Bernice, I only stayed on assistance 6 months and joined the military,

She has educated me with so much history. Every reference she talked about, such as Palm Sunday or the history of Barbados, I booked marked them and googled them to read more about what was stated in the book.

Great job Ms. McFadden!

Her Story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This book is refreshing, a balm for my soul filled with all life gives us in every stage.

The tapestry that the author weaved as we journeyed though her life story.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I enjoyed the story of these firstborn girls being a first born girl. As a black woman feeling all the feelings.

Life and living

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Bernice McFadden - I was waiting for this book and it did not disappoint. She is one of the best writers of our lifetime, and after reading this I understand her even better. Bravo!

Loved every minute of this book

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews