Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060972084 ISBN 13: 9780060972080

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 1989

Highly acclaimed and wildly successful, Ethan Canin's first book combines exquisite precision, humor, and a rare maturity of observation, capturing those miraculous moments when life opens up and presents itself to us. Here are short stories by a writer under thirty that aren't about existential emptiness. Full of life, rich with personal history, plot, and revelation, the stories in Empeor of the Air are the work of an extraordinarily gifted young writer.

About the Author:

Ethan Canin grew up in California, where many of his stories are set. His fiction has appeared in The Atlantic, Esquire, Ploughshares, Chicago, and other magazines, and it has been selected for a number of anthologies, including Best American Short Stories 1985 and 1986. In addition to the Houghton Mifflin Literary Fellowship, he has won a James Michener Award, and Iowa Teaching/Writing Fellowship, and the Henfield/Transatlantic Review Award. He is twenty-eight years old and lives in Boston, Massachusetts, where he attends medical school. Emperor of the Air is his first book.

From AudioFile:

Male self-recognition, differentiated by age and experience, is the unifying theme in these four stories from Ethan Canin's first collection. The author's narration is a bit dull and slow, with no real use of vocal characterizations. It sounds as if he is so entranced with his words that he feels no embellishment is needed. He is wrong. Canin's stories, while somewhat compelling, may not keep listeners interested enough to ignore his voice. M.R. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine