Bailey's Cafe — Gloria Naylor

Welcome to Bailey's Café, where the food may not be much but the ambience is graced by myth and magic. The café is home to Sadie, the ladylike alcoholic with a mania for cleanliness; to Sweet Esther, who caters to unspeakable appetites in a nearby "boarding house," taking payment only in white roses; and to Mariam, the Ethiopian child who may be the bearer of a miracle. Gloria Naylor's breathtaking new novel is an enthralling fusion of lives whose courage, mystery, and humor suggest nothing less than a blues tapestry of America.