Brown Girl, Brownstones
Paule Marshall
Jun 2026 · Penguin Random House Audio · Narrated by Kyaha Fraites
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9 hr 56 min
Unabridged
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About this audiobook
The beloved coming-of-age novel about a Brooklyn girlhood that heralded a renaissance in Black women’s literature more than sixty years ago, with a new foreword by Nicole Dennis-Benn, the bestselling author of Patsy and Here Comes the Sun
Selina Boyce comes of age in 1940s Brooklyn as the daughter of two Barbadian immigrants—a father she adores and who dreams of nothing but his return to his homeland, and a mother she admires and who is determined to purchase their New York City brownstone. When her father comes into an unexpected inheritance, her parents’ opposing desires set in motion the family’s collapse and Selina’s own self-realization amid the warring ideals and identities of her Black Caribbean community. With Brown Girl, Brownstones, Paule Marshall pioneered a revolution in Black women’s writing, paving the way for Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Audre Lorde, and June Jordan in the 1970s. With this new edition of her debut novel, she finally takes her rightful place in the American literary canon.
Selina Boyce comes of age in 1940s Brooklyn as the daughter of two Barbadian immigrants—a father she adores and who dreams of nothing but his return to his homeland, and a mother she admires and who is determined to purchase their New York City brownstone. When her father comes into an unexpected inheritance, her parents’ opposing desires set in motion the family’s collapse and Selina’s own self-realization amid the warring ideals and identities of her Black Caribbean community. With Brown Girl, Brownstones, Paule Marshall pioneered a revolution in Black women’s writing, paving the way for Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Audre Lorde, and June Jordan in the 1970s. With this new edition of her debut novel, she finally takes her rightful place in the American literary canon.
The beloved coming-of-age novel about a Brooklyn girlhood that heralded a renaissance in Black women’s literature more than sixty years ago, with a new foreword by Nicole Dennis-Benn, the bestselling author of Patsy and Here Comes the Sun
Selina Boyce comes of age in 1940s Brooklyn as the daught...
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About the author
Paule Marshall (1929–2019) was a MacArthur “genius,” a Guggenheim fellow, and the recipient of numerous other honors, including the American Book Award, the John Dos Passos Prize for Literature, and the Anisfield–Wolf Lifetime Achievement Award. A member of “the Sisterhood” of Black women writers that included Toni Morrison, Audre Lorde, June Jordan, and Alice Walker, she published five novels—Brown Girl, Brownstones (1959); The Chosen Place, the Timeless People (1969); Praisesong for the Widow (1983); Daughters (1991); and The Fisher King (2001)—as well as a collection of novellas, Soul Clap Hands and Sing (1961); a short-story collection, Reena and Other Stories (1983); and a memoir, Triangular Road (2009). Born and raised in Brooklyn to parents from Barbados, she died in Richmond, Virginia.
Nicole Dennis-Benn (foreword) is the author of the Read with Jenna Book Club pick Patsy, which was a national bestseller and a Lambda Literary Award winner, and Here Comes the Sun, which was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and a Lambda Literary Award winner. Born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica, she teaches at Princeton and lives with her wife in Brooklyn, New York.
Nicole Dennis-Benn (foreword) is the author of the Read with Jenna Book Club pick Patsy, which was a national bestseller and a Lambda Literary Award winner, and Here Comes the Sun, which was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and a Lambda Literary Award winner. Born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica, she teaches at Princeton and lives with her wife in Brooklyn, New York.
Paule Marshall (1929–2019) was a MacArthur “genius,” a Guggenheim fellow, and the recipient of numerous other honors, including the American Book Award, the John Dos Passos Prize for Literature, and the Anisfield–Wolf Lifetime Achievement Award. A member of “the Sisterhood” of Black women writers...
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