Nominated for the Peace Corps Worldwide 2009 Maria Thomas Fiction Award. "As in Chinatown or Ballad of a Thin Man, they do directly to the gut. This mix is a rich one." Allen W. Fletcher, author of Heat, Sand & Friends This collection of short stories focuses upon telling details: a taxi driver unscrewing his license plate bulb, a young American bewitched by a female shaman waving a necklace of dried herbs, a strange unheeded warning that "Rodolfo is one of us-as much as can be expected," the son of a salesman who travels south on a shoestring to dispel the curse of guilt and free the ghost of remorse, the island artist fueled by the tea of a lotus flower who carves driftwood with shards of imported soda pop bottles, and a child born as rain pings on a tin roof like a reed flute alternating high and low notes. Hear the voices, see the action described by a former Peace Corps Volunteer. This ain"t no Peace Corps Pollyanna!