In this long short story, or short novella, Dave Eggers gives us an unforgettable duo, Helen and Peter Mahoney, a homebody niece and her adventurous, almost-British uncle. Helen designs invitations to parties and galas to which she is not welcome, and is quite comfortable with that. One day, though, Peter wonders, "Why not print an extra invite and I'll be your plus one?" What starts out as an innocuous lark becomes much more—a very funny and lyrical referendum on why humans congregate and celebrate.

Cole lives alone, has no pets, and has grown accustomed to a homelife of profound quiet (not to say tedium). When Daphne and her two young children move into the apartment next door, the noise is extraordinary—impossible to believe, really—and Cole assumes he’ll have to move. But his new neighbors, and their very odd cats, see him differently than he sees himself, and he soon adopts an entirely new persona, that of an older gentleman in a cardigan, ready to assist and advise. This third installment of the series of minibooks called The Forgetters builds into a powerful meditation on forgiveness, grace, and the happiness of being called upon.

In The Ocean Is Everyone’s But It Is Not Yours (the sixth short story in Dave Eggers’s Forgetters series of standalone hardcover minibooks), Aurora Mahoney runs one of three whale-watching businesses on the Monterey coast. It’s a life of great beauty, wonder and camaraderie, but after one of her fellow captains retires, a new, and decidedly different, sort of captain takes his place. What had been a simple and charmed life is clouded by a sinister, and yet aloof, new force on the waterfront. This is a page-turning examination of what makes a paradise, and how easily one human can destroy it. Published in a pocket-sized hardcover with stunning cover art by Annie Dills, The Ocean Is Everyone’s But It Is Not Yours is available this March exclusively to McSweeney’s readers and subscribers, and in independent bookstores everywhere this summer.