Laure, a 41-year-old prostitute working in a nearby hotel, told how she heard "screams and cries for help" from guests trapped in their beds when the fire broke out.
Here were women unapologetic about being women: whole, incomplete, messy, divided, fertile, plump, merchant, slave, prostitute, servant, old, nubile, lost, found, owned, free.
Mr McLellan's story is based on the Old Testament story of Rahab - a prostitute from the city of Jericho, who saves the lives of two Jewish spies and is, in turn, saved by them.