This collection of short stories frankly faces up to our 20th- and 21st-century political and social messes. In "Magic Carpet over the Euphrates," the tech-savvy "ghost" of an Iraqi suicide bomber is recruited by an American drone operator. Will the discovery of a headless baby push either one of them to new decisions? In "How I Met the Real Vincent," why does a young gay man named Vinh, immigrated as a child during the Vietnam War, cruise New York bandaged as an ear-less Vincent Van Gogh? You'll wonder, along with a nursing home resident in "Shorn" is the hysteria really past that drove...