<DIV><p>In 1858, two black women meet at a restaurant and begin to plot a revolution. Mary Ellen Pleasant owns a string of hotels in San Francisco that secretly double as havens for runaway slaves. Her comrade, Annie, is a young Jamaican who has given up her life of privilege to fight for the abolitionist cause. Together they join John Brown's doomed enterprise and barely escape with their lives.</p><p>With mesmerizing skill, Cliff weaves a multitude of voices into a gripping, poignant story of the struggle for liberation that began not long after the first slaves landed on America's shores.</p><p><b>Michelle Cliff</b> is the author of <i>No Telephone to Heaven</i>, among other books of fiction, and a forthcoming essay collection, <i>Apocalypso</i>. She lives in Santa Cruz, CA.</p></DIV>