The characters in Pigeon Soup & Other Stories are navigating relationships and grappling with issues of translocation, language and identity, religion and culture, and food. These tales portray the dark places they inhabit physically, emotionally, or metaphorically, with twists that sometimes provide a flicker—or even a bright beam—of hope. The collection begins with a light offering of Pigeon Soup, in which two Canadian university students who have arrived in Italy to help in an earthquake relief mission accept a ride from a quirky taxi driver. When he stops at his home for lunch, the drama begins.