Headlines about displacement, identity, and alienation are in the news every day, but little real insight into these issues is available from Twitter feeds and short news items. The role of a fiction writer at the present juncture is not just to be always observing, as Henry James had it, but also to explore and analyze issues of global concern in all their richness and complexity. Michael Washburn's short stories, some of which have appeared in national and small-circulation periodicals, are reflections of a fractured world. They depict the adventures and trials of people unsure of their place in the world and desperate for a sense of belonging.