The idyllic life of empty nesters Ginny and William Owens is shattered when all three of their adult children suddenly return home to stay - indefinitely. Ginny and William find their once peaceful home transformed into the chaos of their child-rearing days. Only this time around, their children are facing adult problems.

What drives so many to leave everything behind and journey alone to a mysterious country, a place without family or friends, where everything is nameless and the future is unknown. This silent graphic novel is the story of every migrant, every refugee, every displaced person, and a tribute to all those who have made the journey.

Diaspora studies have tended to privilege urban landscapes over rural ones, wanting to avoid the racial homogeneity, conservatism, and xenophobia usually associated with the latter. This book examines the work of various writers to show how it expresses the appeal that rural and wilderness spaces can hold for the diasporic imagination.

From the author of Exhalation, an award-winning short story collection that blends "absorbing storytelling with meditations on the universe, being, time and space ... raises questions about the nature of reality and what it is to be human" (The New York Times). Stories of Your Life and Others delivers dual delights of the very, very strange and the heartbreakingly familiar, often presenting characters who must confront sudden change—the inevitable rise of automatons or the appearance of aliens—with some sense of normalcy. With sharp intelligence and humor, Chiang examines what it means to be alive in a world marked by uncertainty, but also by beauty and wonder. An award-winning collection from one of today's most lauded writers, Stories of Your Life and Others is a contemporary classic. Includes “Story of Your Life”—the basis for the major motion picture Arrival

Not far away, and possibly someplace you may have passed through unknowingly, there exists a small School, a campus with a Village nearby. This place blends the real and the fantastic, and here it is, now, with you peering into it. Blink twice and you can pop into the Game. Move around: you see trees, buildings, streets, and people in motion. Here at School, you're a Gamer now. If you travel on foot, the School appears to be a place of learning, instruction, and knowledge. Old trees, brick buildings. A Library, Lecture Hall, and Laboratory face onto a Quad, complete with a flagpole, stocks, and a hitching post. The Village nearby contains a Beauty Parlor and a restaurant. Down the road lies a Strip club, but you must drive to Flesh Ranch. Some people who live nearby never imagine the Game exists. The School is akin to a school for wayward girls, except it is different than that. The eight rambling boarding Houses might be akin to sorority or fraternity houses, except they are different than that. Some of the Houses are inhabited by gals, some by guys, and some are not segregated by sex or gender preference. But there are always eight Gamers per House, one a Monitor who is in charge, and seven Pledge, who compete for the Options. Our narrative focuses on the eight gals of the Cosmos House during one Term at School. We meet them during The Arrivals, as they enter both one-by-one and in pairs. Some are veterans, some newbies, but all must value the Garments they wear, accumulate Props and Obeisances, and manage their Exposures. Yes, they shall play a power Game. "In the Game stay the Game," is one of the Chants. But beware should you decide to continue! The School is a most unusual playground, a Game of high-stakes stimulation, where Kundalini, the sexual force, gets teased into awakening. The Game here at School demands deeper commitment than your typical zip fuck, overnight passion, or prolonged dungeon visit. At School, Gamers play for real. Lifestyle 24x7, on the grid. Up and down, back and forth, sideways. Here at School, Gamers study the arts of Kundalini, a creative power manifest in Nature, and learn ways to make love and balance power. Make no mistake: volunteering to attend School is a non-trivial commitment. The Game combines knowledge, power, and passion. Have the Cosmos been pressed into service? No; they have all competed to be here! Begged to attend! Perhaps as the Term progresses they may be persuaded to reveal their reasons for wanting this challenge. Or not. But remember, for the eight Cosmos, there is no turning back. Students always need to Game, and Gamers always need to be students. "In the Game stay the Game," is one of the Chants. * Meet Monitor Babs and Seven Cosmos House Pledge. * The Eight Cosmos are beautiful women, all different. *Spend one Term with them. Play the Game at School. *They shall exchange, gain or lose power. * Struggle to Opt Up or Opt Down. *In a Game of sexual tension. *Where Kundalini runs loose! WHAT HAS BEEN SAID ABOUT THE COSMOS? "A Slow and deliberate striptease, combined with a fun vocabulary of contemporary erotic media." -Anonymous Gamer. "No body part, no body function, no power play remains immune to the eyes of Professor Gamer." -Name withheld by request. "The squeeze upon the Cosmos takes up torque at a deliciously measured pace which counters all of your ideas about quick sex." "Taste carefully. Because The Cosmos is rich, intellectual, unabashed. And downright fun." -A Gamer who plays for real. "Be careful opening this, because for some people it is like grabbing onto a hot wire. Enter a sex-world amusement park playpen that will amaze, shock, delight you, and pop your head." -Wise Guy. "Open it anywhere. Read it and feel it. Check out the Diagrams, Appendix, Manifests, and Index. Hook and read from the start, and become a Gamer too." -The Switch who appears inside. "The Game is played by all of us." -An old Cosmos saying.