Paris Girls Secret Society

Book excerpt: Three American girls from very different backgrounds arrive in Paris in the autumn of 1967 for a college year abroad: shy but brainy little Charity, from a Boston Brahmin family; gorgeous Amaleen, West Virginia nouveau riche man-killer; politically-committed Josie, from a prominent African-American family near Chicago. Unlikely roommates, their prejudices fall away as they grow into friendship, but May 1968 shatters their cozy world: the Sorbonne explodes in riots as millions of students and workers revolt and France hurtles toward chaos. The girls flee their Latin Quarter apartment, one to explore-and risk death-in the Dordogne's prehistoric caves; one to a lavish life in a Loire chateau where hidden terror lurks; one to dangerous exhilaration on the barricades. Along the way they stumble into love: tender, lustful, perverse, and sublime. In only a month they learn far more about who they are and who they want to be. For the Paris Girls Secret Society, life and love will never be the same.