Bliss (41 page)

D
ANYEL
S
MITH
is one of the best-loved music writers of her generation. A former editor at large for Time Inc. and editor in chief of
Vibe
, she also wrote the introduction to the
New York Times
bestseller
Tupac Shakur
. Born and raised in California, she now lives in New York City. Visit Danyel at
nakedcartwheels.blogspot.com
.

Also by Danyel Smith

A lyrical coming-of-age story of two sisters raising themselves in beautiful, drug-ravaged Oakland, California
.

“Lyrical and original … Smith has created vivid characters, a palpable sense of place, and a wholly absorbing story.”

—
New York Times Book Review

“Danyel Smith fuses a wildly intelligent coming-of-age story with a morally complex take on the devastating costs of poverty and racism—a tale that deals in hard truths and, ultimately, forgiveness.”

—
Elle

“Smith’s light, sinewy prose sings with precision.”

—
Washington Post Book World

“At once a deeply felt coming-of-age novel and a love letter to her native Oakland,
More Like Wrestling
navigates that mapless, limnal space between childhood and adulthood.”

—
Vibe

“An impressive, impressionistic tale … ultimately beautiful, and in its way, miraculous.”

—
San Francisco Chronicle

MORE LIKE WRESTLING/0609-80993-8/$12.95 paper (Canada: $19.95)

Available from Three Rivers Press wherever books are sold
www.CrownPublishing.com

Copyright © 2005 by Danyel Smith

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Three Rivers Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com

Three Rivers Press and the Tugboat design are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Originally published in hardcover in the United States by Crown Publishers, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, in 2005.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Smith, Danyel.

    Bliss: a novel/Danyel Smith.-1st ed.

1. Americans-Bahamas-Fiction. 2. Sound recordng industry-Fiction.
3. Pregnant women-Fiction. 4. Single women-Fiction. 5. Music trade-
Fiction. 6. Abortion-Fiction. 7. Bahamas-Fiction. I. Title.

PS3619.M575B58 2005

813′.6-dc22

2004029302

eISBN: 978-0-307-51460-8

v3.0