Shay Youngblood's new book, Black Girl in Paris, is a wonderfully evocative and lyrically written novel describing a young woman's search for identity on the streets of Paris. Youngblood's first novel, Soul Kiss, was a powerful coming-of-age story, but lest you think Youngbloodís province is the bildungsroman, think again. Youngbloodís latest protagonist is coming into womanhood and writing an entirely different subject.

"My name is Eden and I'm not afraid of anything anymore. Like my literary godfathers who came to Paris before me I intend to live a life where being black won't hold me back." So begins Youngblood's tale, and Eden's rumble with life. Twenty-six-year-old Eden arrives in Paris in the fall of 1986, a year when terrorists' bombs are exploding throughout the city. She is 'no stranger to terror,' having grown up in segregated Birmingham, Alabama, during the 1960s; she endures years of nightmares after the church bombing that killed four little girls like herself. By age 13, Eden has moved with her solemn, quiet, 'old like grandparents' parents to Georgia where she learns to love stories and singing, courtesy of her Aunt Victorine Eden's salvation. Aunt Vic's stories become Eden's brightest light, but Eden doesnít have the confidence to let her own words shine; instead, she hid them by writing between other peopleís lines in books her father rescues from trash bins.