Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls

By T. Kira Madden

Subjects: Girlhood, Women authors, Biography, Women, united states, biography, Authors, biography, Fathers and daughters, Privilege, Childhood and youth, Drug Abuse, Adult children of drug addicts, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Personal Memoirs, Essays, New York Times reviewed, LGBTQ biography and memoir, Memoir, Racially mixed people, Lesbian authors, American Women authors, Queer women, Racially mixed women, Lesbians, biography

Description: Acclaimed literary essayist T Kira Madden's raw and redemptive debut memoir is about coming of age and reckoning with desire as a queer, biracial teenager amidst the fierce contradictions of Boca Raton, Florida, a place where she found cult-like privilege, shocking racial disparities, rampant white-collar crime, and powerfully destructive standards of beauty hiding in plain sight. As a child, Madden lived a life of extravagance, from her exclusive private school to her equestrian trophies and designer shoe-brand name. But under the surface was a wild instability. The only child of parents continually battling drug and alcohol addictions, Madden confronted her environment alone. Facing a culture of assault and objectification, she found lifelines in the desperately loving friendships of fatherless girls. With unflinching honesty and lyrical prose, spanning from 1960s Hawai'i to the present-day struggle of a young woman mourning the loss of a father while unearthing truths that reframe her reality, Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls is equal parts eulogy and love letter. It’s a story about trauma and forgiveness, about families of blood and affinity, both lost and found, unmade and rebuilt, crooked and beautiful.