In his stories, Saunders explores ideas of power, ethics, and justice, and cuts to the very heart of what it means to live in community with our fellow humans. Wickedly funny, unsentimental, and perfectly tuned, the stories challenge and surprise as they encompass joy and despair, oppression and revolution, bizarre fantasy and brutal reality. -- adapted from back cover "The 'best short story writer in English' (Time) is back with a masterful collection...

An ex-assassin for the United States government, Paul Janson, teams up with an accomplished sharpshooter, Jessica Kincaid, to rescue a doctor abducted by African pirates in international waters and realizes there are larger forces at work when their liberation mission goes awry.