In this debut short story collection about the myriad of ways in which desire structures (and destroys) the self, language, and love, Daisuke Shen emphasizes a resounding truth: our fractured understandings of each other may yet be enough. Daisuke Shen's stories conjure forth a vast and often spectacular array of voices. Disparate as they might seem, their limitations often serve as entryways: insanity, anger, fear, shame can be understood by those who are willing to listen. A couple employs a long-distance dating service that provides them exact clones of their partners, but then slowly begin losing their memories. Four boys with cruel intentions come across a field of statuesque women, unaware of the vengeance that awaits them. Paranoia leads a brilliant engineer into creating a language-processing machine that will tell her the truth of others' emotions. Vague Predictions & Prophecies explores transformation, alienation, and identity, questioning the very nature of human connection. Through beautifully written prose, Shen invokes magical realism to create gigantic worlds packed inside deceptively small packages.