"When Lilly Dancyger was twenty-three years old, her best friend and cousin, Sabina, was violently raped and murdered. In the face of devastating loss, Dancyger stayed sane and whole by the magic and the medicine of her female friends. Each essay in First Love examines a different female friendship in her life, beginning with her first love-Sabina-whose loss becomes the springboard for Dancyger's examinations of her fierce and passionate relationships...