Davetian's starkly moving stories take the reader into some of the world's darkest corners -- Somalia, Bosnia, Russia, Turkish-Armenia -- and allow us to see and feel what it is to be an individual in the midst of genocide and ethnic warfare. Whether he is writing of Solzhenitsyn going into exile or of an unknown Somali peasant facing starvation alone, Davetian portrays characters struggling to find meaning and dignity. Also included is a witty and ironic story about the 1995 Quebec referendum.