Passion can fuel the engine of love, or ignite weapons of war. It can shatter dreams and build elaborate obsessions. In these witty chilling stories, Nick earls looks at passion in all its guises. Dark emotions underlie respectable surfaces in the title story which, like "Mars", explores the dehumanising power of bureaucracy. In "Adagio" and "Love as a Perfect Stranger", the expectations raised by romantic fiction stand in the way of genuine emotional engagement, and "Pisces" presents a blackly comic view of the failure of communication in a society outpaced by technology. Nick Earls is an outstanding new star in Australian fiction, whose taut and intelligent prose combines with stinging social satire to produce an original, wryly humorous collection.