Desire is a novel about being over

that limit. In our century we have

abandoned the conventions of ro-

mance, with its grand gestures, its

self-immolating passion -- or have

we? The state of desire is as timeless

as it is consuming.

When Lily, a "pearl doctor"

and heiress to a San Francisco jew-

elry dynasty, finds her safe world

exploded by an obsessive affair, she

seems to be repeating a family his-

tory she has just begun to learn.

Eventually, her very survival will