First pain, then knowledge. It’s the turn of the twenty-first century and Square, Oval, and the other inhabitants of Flatland find themselves slipping into a postbiological future where lying down with the scalpel is as common as buying and selling genes. VAS tells the story of one family at this moment in time, looking at what the body has been while imagining what it—and we—might become. Printed in the colors of flesh and blood, this stunning imagetext novel is ultimately the story of finding one’s identity within the double helix of language and lineage. “A beautifully vibrant collaboration, VAS balances terrifying facts and a desperate humor with ease. . . .Reading VAS, I felt pushed a bit higher above our own cultural Flatland, an experience both disturbing and enlightening, and one for which I am grateful.”—Review of Contemporary Fiction “This constitutes a leap forward for the genre we call ‘novel.’ Collapsing nonfiction into fiction, women’s reproductive concerns into men’s, history into present, work into play—this novel takes juxtaposition and digression to new heights.”—American Book Review  “Visually brilliant…VAS: An Opera in Flatland redesigns the novel, taking it to a dimension beyond the one in which it ordinarily lives.”—Rain Taxi