Good Night Papa: Short Stories from Japan and Elsewhere is a collection of fifteen tales of fiction for the time-poor. Four of the stories are set in Japan, while others transport the reader to countries around the world. Triumphing over adversity is a central theme: a fugitive disguised as a pilgrim discovers his fate rests in the hands of a novice Buddhist monk in Japan (The Pilgrim); a recovering alcoholic mail pilot crashes his plane in the Australian desert with a bottle of gin on board (The Finke River Mail); a snobbish widow must ask the help of local cannery workers to carry a grand piano uphill to her home in Fiji (Baby Grand) are just three of the tales told.