A Doubter's Almanac

This is a work of fiction. All incidents and dialogue, and all characters with the exception of some well-known historical and public figures, are products of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Where real-life historical or public figures appear, the situations, incidents, and dialogues concerning those persons are entirely fictional and are not intended to depict actual events or to change the entirely fictional nature of the work. In all other respects, any resemblance to persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2016 by Ethan Canin

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Random House, an imprint and division of Random House LLC, a Penguin Random House Company, New York.

RANDOM HOUSE and the HOUSE colophon are registered trademarks of Random House LLC.

Grateful acknowledgment is made to the Mathematical Association of America for permission to include the Professor Gamble problem from page 49 of
The Contest Problem Book VII
by Harold B. Reiter as well as the modified answer to said problem, copyright © 2000 by the Mathematical Association of America. Reprinted by permission.

ISBN 9781400068265

eBook ISBN 9780812996784

randomhousebooks.com

Book design by Simon M. Sullivan, adapted for ebook

Cover design: Joseph Perez

Cover illustration: Gérard Dubois

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Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Part One

Induction

A Late Arrival

Impossible

Welcome to the World

Singularity Theory

Deduction

Nature Never Lies

Poets

The Newton of North Oakland

Devil’s Fork

The Orrery

China White

Contraposition

Fine Hall

Occam’s Razor

Rise Over Run

Dogs and Horses

Another Roof, Another Proof

Time and Chance

You Can’t Comb the Hair on a Coconut

Regression to the Mean

Welcome to the Future

Order of Operations

Transire Suum Pectus

Ant on a Rubber Rope

Reductio Ad Impossibilem

A Scandinavian Weed

Discovery

Inventory

Part Two

Restatement

I Confess

Volatility Smile

The Great War of the Calculus