An anthology of short fiction explores the issue of human longings and how sex and religion have become parallel forms of comfort and dedication, linking each story with the following by a minor element in one tale that becomes a major theme of the next.

"A prophecy claims that Psyche, princess of Mycenae, will defeat a monster feared even by the gods. Rebelling against her society's expectations for women, Psyche spends her youth mastering blade and bow, preparing to meet her destiny. When Psyche angers the love goddess Aphrodite, she sends Eros, god of desire, to deliver a cruel curse. After eons watching humanity twist his gifts, the last thing Eros wants is to become involved in the chaos of the...

On the day of Lia's university graduation party, her parents--wealthy art collectors with friends in high places--gift her a beautiful wine cup, a rare artifact decorated with roses. It's a stunning gift, and one that August Bowman, a friend of her parents and a guest at Lia's party, also has his eye on. The cup, August tells her, is known as the Rose Kylix, and it's no ordinary cup. It was used in the temple ceremonies of Eros, Greek god of erotic...

'I don't remember pulling the trigger; I only heard the gunshot. And then I saw a mouth opening, as if to speak, a face contorted, one hand in the air. And then a body falling.' A man retires to a sun-baked Turkish town for a quiet life. But he finds a world of suspicion, paranoia and violence. The town has made a murderer of him. The question is, who did he kill? Led by a deeply untrustworthy narrator, Ahmet Altan's international bestseller pulls...

"She saved his life when they were kids and then he saved hers. When she became a young woman, Poppy knew she would never love anyone the way she loved Jack Lee Bridger. But after a near tragedy, Jack left home to become a Navy SEAL and Poppy knew there wouldn't be another like him. Not for her. She remembered the way it felt when he looked at her with those smoldering eyes. The way he kissed her. Touched her... Now it's years later and danger is...

Spontaneous combustion occurs when Bill, a forty-year-old barista and a failed poet, meets James, a disabled factory worker and a daddy hunk, at an OctoBear Dance. For six months they share weekends of incredible passion at James's house up north in the country. Winter has never seemed hotter in their flannel sheets. But on the first day of spring James abruptly informs Bill over the phone that it's not going to work out and hangs up. No further explanation:...

"Fiona Kidman's early stories about New Zealand women's experiences scandalised readers with their vivid depictions of the heartbreaks and joys of desire, illicit liaisons and unconventional love. Her writing made her a feminist icon in the early 1980s, and she has since continued to tell the realities of women's lives, her books resonating with many readers over the years and across the world. To mark her 80th birthday, this volume brings together...

"Rosa, midway through life, is alone. Her husband passed away long ago, and her cosmopolitan daughter is already out the door, keen to marry and move to the city. At loose ends, Rosa decides to transplant herself to the flat, foggy Lombardy provinces from her native Naples and there finds a way to renew herself—by opening a restaurant, and in the process coming to a new appreciation of the myriad relationships possible between women, from friendship...