It has been nearly a decade since Richard Ford published the novel Canada, and in that time he has been perfecting his skills as a writer of emotionally resonant short fiction. Among the nine stories here, "Displaced" is set in Mississippi, where an adolescent whose father has died has a shocking encounter with a young Irish immigrant attempting to bring him solace. The novella-length "The Run of Yourself" follows a lawyer discovering what life will be like without his wife, while "Nothing to Declare" follows a man and a woman's chance re-meeting in New Orleans's French Quarter, after 20 years, and pondering what might have been and what still could be.