"Eggers's stories glide from one exotic locale to the next—from
Peace Corps-type burn-outs in Southeast Asia to geeky chess
aficionados in Tacoma, Washington—displaced persons all, lit
from within by strange flickering passions. Funny, trenchant,
lyrical, and mesmerizing stories."—Marly Swick
	
     Paul Eggers's stories examine the moral arena created by the
existence of refugees. Some are about literal refugees—those
displaced in the aftermath of the Vietnam War and about those
who would help them. Others are about refugees in a metaphoric
sense— people alternately bullied and bullying, who are exiled 
from sources of power, caught in moments when the familiar gives 
way to the unfamiliar.

  "Eggers has captured the `beat' of Southeast Asia to an intoxicating
degree. The stories are honest in their conception, economical and
vivid in their tone, and refreshingly unromantic in their take on
Americans abroad."—Richard Wiley

   "Eggers defines the heartbreaking gap between what is done and
what should be done, a weird zone where the best of men are
armed only with apologies and preliminary damage reports. Full of
rich and disturbing imagery."—Ron Carlson

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PAUL EGGERS, a former Peace Corps volunteer and U.N. relief
worker, is also a former nationally ranked chess master. He 
earned his Ph.D. in fiction writing from the University of 
Nebraska—Lincoln.  His novel Saviors (Harcourt, 1999) 
was a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers 
selection. He teaches creative writing at California State 
University, Chico.