The five commissioned essays in this volume are all concerned with exile, home, and memory. Andre Aciman traces his migration from his home in Egypt to Italy and the United States and compares his own transience with the unrootedness of many moderns. Eva Hoffman examines the crucial role of language and what happens when your first is lost. Edward Said defends his conflicting political and cultural allegiances. Novelist Bharat Mukherjee explores her own struggle with assimilation. Finally, Charles Simic remembers the comedy of bureaucracy he experienced as a 16-year-old displaced person in Paris after the war, and his thwarted attempts at fitting in in America.