Residual Desire is a haunting collection of short stories full of wounded and damaged creatures, broken hearts, lasting regrets, and lives that didn't turn out as intended. With a voice as fresh as it is insightful, J. Jill Robinson has crafted a startling and enthralling book, comprised of twelve wonderful stories, each with its own particular sadness and power. In "Nobody's Fool," a single mother attempting to come to terms with her new life is plagued by her old one. In "You Are Not Yourself Right Now," a woman's visit to her elderly father is starting to feel like the last one. In "Indelible Marks," a chance sighting of an old friend plunges a lonely woman into a painful journey through the past. "Her Heart's Content" chronicles the separate yet intertwined grief of a couple whose young child has died accidentally at a relative's home. In "Quicksand," four middle-aged sisters - each with issues of their own - travel together to clean out the house of a beloved aunt too sick to remain on her own. And in the beautiful title story, a confused and tormented woman finds that neither her ex-husband nor her current one are who she thought they were. Written in a voice that's both compassionate and unsentimental, a voice that knows all but maybe doesn't tell all, these stories are heartbreaking explorations of human nature, painful examinations of the damage inflicted by living in a far-from-perfect world.