13 Successful First Novels by Female Writers

Sue Monk Kidd began her career then went on to write several spiritual memoirs before her first novel, The Secret Life of Bees, was published in 2002. She wrote the novel — a coming-of-age tale that takes place during the racial unrest of the South in the '60s — over three and a half years. It became a New York Times bestseller, was nominated for the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction, and was adapted into a 2008 film starring Queen Latifah, Dakota Fanning, and Jennifer Hudson.