The stories in this remarkable debut collection explore the relationships we have with ourselves as well as those we have with others, and what we think about when we think we are alone. In the title story, a hospital bed-bound convalescent begins a monologue to his unconscious roommate that grows stranger when he realizes he has crossed paths with the other man before. The nameless narrator of Homage to Swega Tagabodu describes the rituals by which he ensures that the airplane he is on will land safely. In Reginald Used the Subjunctive Today, the worn-down Father O'Mallon struggles to protect and educate wayward boys in a post-apocalyptic, post-grammatical world. In Contact, a tour guide and tour director speak the same language, but do not understand each other at all.