"From the internationally acclaimed, award-winning author of De Niro's Game and Beirut Hellfire Society, a riveting, cosmopolitan collection of stories set in places around the world. In Montreal, a failed photographer's surprise encounter with Sophia Loren leads to a revelation about his dead mother. In Baghdad, a translator is held captive while facilitating work on a secret deal between Iraq and the United States. In Beirut, a disillusioned geologist eagerly awaits the impending destruction of a tsunami. And in Tokyo, in the mesmerizing title story of this collection, a young Palestinian graduate of an American university is shaken by news from the Persian Gulf. Rawi Hage's Stray Dogs travels between states--both nation states and states of mind--to vividly explore the sometimes shocking ways our fragile modern identities are born, die, and live again in our fragmented, globalized world. Politically astute, philosophically wise, compassionate and observant, startlingly relevant and caustically funny, these stories reveal the unique vision of Rawi Hage at his very best."-- Provided by publisher.

The iconoclast -- Bird nation -- Stray dogs -- Mother, mother, mother -- The whistle -- The fate of the son of the man on the horse -- Instructions for the dance -- The veil -- The duplicates -- The wave -- The colour of trees.