It wasn't his father's beaming face that greeted Yusuf. It was his mother's, frigid and encased in a white orna, the frayed edges of which she had trapped between her teeth. "It's getting late," she whispered to him. Shafts of bright early sunlight leaked through the curtains, attracting mosquitoes to the windowpane. Beyond it, the neighborhood was slowly waking up on the happiest day of the year. "Get up, Yusuf, please. You have to go to the mosque."

The twelve stories in this collection chart a course between the United States and India. Some are set wholly in one country, while others form a bridge between the two. Uniting them is a shared attention to memory, isolation, and loss. In their own idiosyncratic ways, each of the characters in these small fictions is struggling for human connection in a hostile and lonely world.

In this collection of linked stories and shorts, the narrator reflects on important people and events in his life, particularly his high school and college years, primarily through first and second person points of view. The stories “Joanna” and “Honor Roll” are first-person narratives, while “Mr. Finethreads” is told from the third person. “Pictures from a Wedding” and “College | Collage” are considered modular fiction, which create a mock-autobiography out of the disparate pieces of the overall mosaic.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2000. / Typescript. Vita. Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (MCW) -- AUT University, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references. Also held in print (193 leaves ; 30 cm.) in the Archive at the City Campus (T NZ823.3 BOT )

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2001. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 301-305). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of San Carlos, May 1973. / Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [156]-159).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2003. / Leaves iv and vi are blank. Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaf xviii). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M.A.)--Florida State University, 2003. / Advisor: Mark Winegardner, Florida State University, Department of English. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Apr. 7, 2004). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2000. / Typescript. Vita. Also available on the Internet.