A Harvard College student reflects on his troubled relationship with his mother as she dies.

Following the fall of the Soviet Union, a Russian man studying in the United States reconnects with his estranged, ludicrously Communist grandfather. Through letters, phone calls, and eBay, they bond over their shared experiences with death and Soviet life.

On an artificial island build to counter the effects of climate-induced flooding, an immigrant father returns from a long period away and struggles to reconnect with his distant son.

After his wife's tragic death, a man is visited by several small gods— including that of grief, joy, and heavy hearts — who help him go back to life as normal after his loss.

Facing two unwilling booksellers in a bankruptcy case, a lawyer is forced to reckon with arson and a faked death.

After struggling for years to conceive, Caroline and Ivan weather the perilous emotional storms of pregnancy together. The trials of a long-awaited pregnancy threaten to rip apart Caroline and Ivan's marriage.

Assuming that they were here to invade, mankind massacred the aliens whose ships landed on Earth. Now, the aliens and humans have an uneasy peace together. The aliens who landed on earth love to fly kites. One kite-maker sells them despite harassment from skinheads who hate the aliens and anyone who does business with them.

During the last year of his life, after decades of estrangement due to a drug addiction and an escape from their home in Ohio, a brother reaches out to his long-lost sister.

An American visits his family in Spain as the Spanish Civil War erupts. Familial tensions emerge as he argues against war with his wounded cousin, who served for the Nationalists.