The Man Back There and Other Stories

And yet, somehow, we wince for the dog-catcher who crashes his ex-wife’s Thanksgiving dinner in “The Castle on the Hill.” We sympathize with the latch-key kid who pillages toys in a dead boy’s closet in “Time Capsule.” And in “The Long Run,” we find it hard to condemn a ninety-two-year-old senator trying to salvage his career after his ex-wife publishes a scandalous tell-all book about his life. In this deceptively quiet collection, the truth is something that simmers up through what is not said. A hero is a man who saves himself from himself, who placates his temper with self-awareness and, most importantly, self-forgiveness. is a feat of empathy and razor sharp vision. is the author of , which received the 2005 Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction. He lives in Fairbanks, where he teaches at the University of Alaska.