"A young woman allergic to wasps tries to reach out to a neighbor, unsure if he is a jock, or a murderer; a feisty lobsterwoman, ostracized by a North Atlantic fishing village tells a handsome stranger of other strangers who have washed up on her shore, and left her with a 'brood of brats"; just before his sixtieth birthday celebration, a man learns his only friend just died, and contronts more than his own mortality; in a small Southeast Asian port, a woman living in the Australian Outback tries to find some rapport with her hip new daughter-in-law from Chicago and both confront unexpected terrors; a daughter tries to come to terms with her brilliant father's amorous adventures, and his physical decline. Whether the story is set in Latin America, the Far East, Canada or the United States, an undercurrent of hope and longing ties these apparently diverse characters together in a compelling and poignant unity"--from page [4] of cover.