It takes a lifetime to understand where we end and the rest of the world begins. The Self in Our Times is a collection of seven independent stories that unravels both familiar and unfamiliar worlds of the 21st century, with the aim of harboring empathy for a vastly different array of human lives. By tapping into diverse lived realities, the narratives pursue a discovery of universal in the local. Together, they contemplate on the meaning of home, loss, love, and the mysterious self in all of us.