Eighteen tales, written from the early eighties to the mid-nineties, set forth in crystalline prose and with impeccable technique, collected from publications as varied asThe New Yorker,Playboy,Harper's,Omniand small-press chapbooks.This collection of mainstream stories is a stunning example of the virtuosity of the legendaryUrsula K. Le Guin. Diffusing the traditional boundaries of realism, magical realism, and surrealism, Le Guin finds the detail that reveals the strange in everyday life, or the unexpected depths of an ordinary person.  They approach reality sometimes frontally, confrontationally, in daylight; sometimes deviously, by a back road in the dark; but they always approach it. These stories are explorations of the mysteries of name and time and ordinary living and ordinary pain. Written with wit, zest, and a passionate sense of human frailty and toughness,Unlocking the Airis superb fiction by a beloved storyteller at the height of her power.“Eavesdropping on these men and women recounting their hopes and dreams, their secrets, spiritual lives and romantic careers, watching the writer play deft tricks with narrative technique, such readers may suddenly discover or develop a taste for the light-handed sureness and the genuinely intriguing ideas that animate the best of Ursula K. Le Guin's fiction.”-Francine Prose, The New York Times"Many, while of insignificant length, offer minutely observed scenes, views, and moments with an insight and compassion that few writers can match... Le Guin's restless intelligence takes her to work in genres from mainstream through fantasy and hard science fiction, while she is equally effective writing for children or adults: Whatever her audience, whatever her thoughts, she has few peers."-Kirkus Reviews