Losing a job is never fun.

Doug knew this from three previous lay-offs and now he had to deal with the familiar disaster for the fourth time. He did what he always did when the pink slip was handed to him; he went home, he drank, and he brooded alone. But this time, acquaintances and strangers come to Doug’s door, seeking shelter from the same economic calamity. Together they make a community, a home, and a way out of the rat-race. But there are those in the wider world, some close and some far, who don’t think there should be an escape and that the rat-race is all there is and ever will be.

A story about the challenge of making one’s own life in a society that tries to say ‘no’, The Lay-off House by David Rogers Jr. portrays how many of us live now, in the real economy, and suggests a way to try and live a little better.