These moving and insightful stories help us to find our place in a world in which we have all become rootless travelers. Janette Turner Hospital's characters are exiles who share an intimate knowledge of dislocation: from their culture, from their native countries, from themselves. Her intimate stories capture the turning points in her characters lives from Indian lovers on a last romantic weekend before their arranged marriages to a daughter's welcome home after years of travel. Janette Turner Hospital is a wanderer herself. A native of Australia, she has lived in India, England, Canada, and the United States. She is the author of numerous novels, includingThe seventeen stories here arent little gifts; theyre cross cultural treasures. Rarely have I been so captivated by a collection of short fiction.