"Spanning decades and landscapes, from forests along the Black Sea to villages along the Euphrates, from the streets of Istanbul to the mountains bordering Iraq, the stories in this collection probe the lives of ordinary people who confront extraordinary moments of personal reckoning. A determined florist trains a neighborhood stray dog to blow up a corrupt president. A garbagewoman finds discarded instruments--and later, musicians--in the trash and takes them home to form a clandestine orchestra in her attic. A smuggler risks his life to traffic a girl claiming to be pregnant via immaculate conception across the border with Iraq. A baker and her husband approach a breaking point in their marriage when an apocalyptic flood threatens their village. A poor cage-maker learns he can talk to birds, and tries to use this gift to enchant his childhood love in the days leading up to the 1955 Istanbul pogrom"--