Two women leaf through a book of French slang, with its delicate and delicious mixing of food and sex ("The Women Wash Lentils"). A man and a woman sit in a Parisian cafe, caressing each others' hands ("Her Ink-Stained Hands"). Two lovers take late-night refuge in a beach cabana, their coupling lit by the lights of his automobile ("The Changing Room").

On a deserted beach, in winter, two women approach each other ("Make Me Dazzle"), and a solitary lighthouse keeper gazes down on their lovemaking ("Dreaming Steven Lighthouse Keeper).

These are glimpses of some of the haunting scenes and characters that people Carole Maso's frankly erotic new book. Taking inspiration from earlier experimenters like Virginia Woolf and Gertrude Stein, Maso here explores the yearnings of a group of characters intuitively connected by desire - people whose lives touch each other, lap against each other, both in reality and in sexual reverie. Part novel, part poetic journal, Aureole weaves their stories together in a work of great beauty and simplicity.