Book excerpt: From New York Times bestselling author Mary Monroe comes a powerful novel about the hopes, dreams, laughter--and limits--of six unique women surviving on the streets of San Francisco. . . They're about as different as six women can be--haughty and humble, beautiful and plain, young and not-so-young, black, white, Latina, and origins unknown. But aside from a gift for laughing hardship in the face, they have one very important thing in common--Clyde Brooks. You might say that Clyde is their "manager." And you might say that Lula Mae, Ester, Megan, Rosalee, Helen, and Rockelle are colleagues--in the world's oldest profession. Clyde likes to refer to them as his "wives." Maybe it's their love for the high life--and for each other--that makes the bond between Clyde's ladies so unbreakable. Maybe it's their private demons that keep them so loyal to Clyde--or so he thinks. For hard as they try to distract themselves, nothing can quell the women's longing for a life free from Clyde and what he represents--until one daring act of defiance changes everything. . . Praise for Mary Monroe "Reminiscent of Zora Neale Hurston." --Publishers Weekly "Watch out Toni Morrison, there is a new sister in town." --Rapport "Mary Monroe is a masterful storyteller." --Philadelphia Inquirer