Book Description

Passion and lust, anticipation and regret, expectancy and ecstasy -- all the moods and emotions of erotic love cast their spell in this collection of forty-eight original tales commissioned especially for this daring volume of international lesbian fiction. Whether sharing intimate reminiscences and intensely personal experiences or recounting humorous encounters and magical matches, writers as varied as Joan Nestle, Stella Duffy, Emma Donoghue, Susan Stinson, Patience Agbabi, Karen X. Tulchinsky, and Bente Clod uncover the depths of erotic desire and scale the heights of sensual bliss in the pages of this culturally diverse and fascinating anthology. So it is that the travails of star-crossed lovers in contemporary Vancouver stand in contrast to a fiery encounter in snowbound Iceland, and the ritualistic preparations of a Japanese girl for the return of her warrior queen cast light on the rites of grief quietly observed by a lonely old woman for the passing of her lover in a shadowy corner of midwestern America. In these worldly tales Eros takes many shapes and wears many faces, and rarely fails to strip the emotions bare. The consequences may be poignant, intriguing, shocking, or sexually delicious. Whatever, they are always titillatingly unpredictable.