Twenty years later, living in Palm Springs, Danny is celebrating his 41st birthdayalthough celebrating might not be the right word for how he feels about his life today. To the outside world, he's still golden: he still has his looks, and he still loves Frank, his boyfriend of nearly two decades. But something is missing in his life. Passion. Romance. Adventure. The same something that's been missing ever since that day when he turned fourteen, when his sister Becky disappeared and his whole world flipped upside-down.

Now into Danny's life walks a gorgeous young bartender named Kelly, who becomes for Danny an obsession, an object of desire and fascination. But Kelly's indifference to this onetime golden boy only confirms what Danny secretly believes: that hes vanishing into thin airlike his sister, so long ago.

As he reflects on his angst-ridden childhoodthe shattering of his family, the sex and drugs of his youth as one of L.A.s most coveted boy toysDanny begins to recognize certain patterns. Somewhere along the way, he gave up on his dreamsnot only of becoming an actor, but his very lust for life.

And yetall thats about to change, when a surprising, agonizing connection with Kelly sends Danny on a soul-searching quest to reclaim the things he has loved and lost.

Filled with unforgettable warmth, incorrigible humor, and irresistible charm, Object of Desire takes readers through three milestone eras in one mans lifehis youth in the 1970s, his days of abandon in the 1980s, and his more sober, reflective existence todayand reaffirms William J. Manns reputation as one of gay fictions major narrative powers.