Book excerpt: The award-winning, bestselling debut collection of “beautifully crafted stories” from the acclaimed author of The Doubter’s Almanac (Chicago Sun-Times). Highly acclaimed and wildly successful upon its debut, Ethan Canin’s now classic collection of nine stories combines exquisite precision, humor, and a rare maturity of observation, capturing those miraculous moments when life opens up and presents itself to us. Full of life, rich with personal history, plot, and revelation, the stories in Emperor of the Air are the work of an extraordinarily gifted young writer. Capturing a wide range of vivid characters and their unforgettable moments of ache, epiphany, humor, and wisdom, Canin would go on to prove himself as “the most mature and accomplished novelist of his generation” (NPR). “Dazzling . . . at times breathtaking, at other times heartbreaking.” —Walker Percy “A glowing first book . . . An engrossing and unified collection.” —Matthew Gilbert, The Boston Globe