Set against a vived backdrop of a world at war,Burden of Desireopens with a cataclysmic explosions that provides the novel's extraordinary central metaphor. The blast and its aftermath, which devastates Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1917, rocks the lives of the three major characters, and ensures that the world as they know it will never be the same again. Brilliantly blending suspense and eroticism with rich historical detail, Robert MacNeil sets the...