New Releases by Lydia Davis

Ihre Erzählungen sind manchmal buchstäbliche Einzeiler; oder es sind lange geduldige Beobachtungen von Kühen im Laufe eines Winters vom Küchenfenster eines Landhauses aus. Ihre Stories können aber auch Träume sein, Beschwerdebriefe (an Tiefkühlerbsenproduzenten oder Autoren von Buchhändler-Werbebroschüren) oder Geschichten, die aus den Briefen Flauberts kondensiert wurden. Lydia Davis schreibt in allen Fällen mit großer Präzision, mit Witz und Intelligenz und einem geschärften Blick für die Unerfreulichkeiten des täglichen Lebens. Da sie nichts als gegeben hinnimmt, überschreitet sie auch ständig die Grenzen der literarischen Konventionen, der Genres und Gepflogenheiten – und das macht ihr Werk zu einer Fundgrube für überraschende Entdeckungen. Sie scheut weder das intellektuelle Vergnügen noch die Nähe der Intimität. Ob es sich um die ironische Aufzählung von Lesevorlieben handelt oder um die ungemein intimen Erinnerungen einer Frau an ihre verstorbene ältere Schwester, um die trocken notierten Schwierigkeiten mit renitenten Dienstmädchen oder die Essgewohnheiten von Großstadtneurotikern: Lydia Davis zu lesen erweitert nicht nur den Horizont, es weist uns auch auf unerwartete Freuden in unser aller rätselhaftem Alltag hin.

Bob, Son of Battle, is a sheepdog so canny and careful of his flock, so deeply devoted to his master, James Moore, and so admired for his poise and wisdom by the residents of a small village in the rugged mountains of England’s North Country, that young though he is, he is already known as Owd Bob. In a recent contest, Bob has proved himself a matchless sheepdog, and if he wins the trophy two more times, he’ll be seen as equal to the legendary sheepdogs of yore. But Bob has a real rival: Red Wull, with his docked tail and bristling yellow fur, a ferocious creature, just like his diminutive master, Adam McAdam, a lonely Scot, estranged not only from his English neighbors but from his son, David. McAdam just can’t stop belittling this strapping young man, all the more so since David began courting Moore’s beautiful daughter Maggie. But what McAdam really wants is for his beloved Wullie to wrest the prize from Bob once and for all. The story takes a darker turn when a troubling new threat to the local flocks emerges. A dog has gone rogue, sneaking out at night to feast on the flesh and blood of the sheep he is bound to protect. Again and again, new sheep fall prey to this relentless predator; again and again, he slips away undetected. This master hunter can only be among the boldest and sharpest of dogs . . . Bob, Son of Battle has long been a beloved classic of children’s literature both in America and in England. Here the celebrated author and translator Lydia Davis, who first read and loved this exciting story as a child, has rendered the challenging idioms of the original into fluent and graceful English of our day, making this tale of rival dogs and rival families and the shadowy terrain between Good and Bad accessible and appealing to readers of all ages.

A fifth collection by the author of the National Book Award finalist, Varieties of Disturbance, includes pithy one-liners, exploratory observations and letters of complaint, including "A Small Story About a Small Box of Chocolates," in which a professor is stymied by her choices.

Bevat de verhalenbundels ''Bezoek aan haar man'' en ''Varianten van ongemak''

Collections 1-12 in New Directions'' Poetry Pamphlet series

Enkelte av Lydia Davis` kortprosatekster består av én eneste setning, andre utforsker forskjellige temaer over mange sider. Felles for dem alle er et høyt språklig nivå og gjenkjennelsesverdi. Fortellingene i denne samlingen kommer i mange ulike former: som klagebrev, utdrag fra Gustave Flauberts brev eller gjenfortellinger av egne eller venners drømmer, for å nevne noen.

Tipos de perturbação reúne 57 narrativas breves de uma das mais potentes e originais contistas em atividade, Lydia Davis. São peças literárias de difícil classificação, trafegando na fronteira entre o conto, o ensaio, a poesia e a filosofia. Há narrativas relativamente longas, como "A sra. D. e suas empregadas", um detalhado relatório das domésticas que passaram pela casa de uma escritora de classe média, cada qual com suas características, seus problemas, seus motivos para sair do emprego. Ou como "Helen e Vi: um estudo sobre saúde e vitalidade", simulacro de ensaio comparativo da trajetória de duas senhoras idosas. Nos interstícios desses textos em tom formal, quase protocolar, revelam-se por vezes dramas pessoais profundos e fraturas sociais mal disfarçadas. Em contraste com esses relatos longos, proliferam os textos brevíssimos, não raro de um único parágrafo. Alguns se assemelham a sutis epigramas, outros a agudos aforismos. Em todos os casos, o elemento comum, além da maestria técnica da autora, é o desejo de colher os personagens em suas íntimas inseguranças e em seus desajustes com o meio circundante - os "tipos de perturbação" que dão título a um dos contos e ao livro. Nesse processo rigoroso de desvelamento, surge com mágica nitidez o absurdo da vida cotidiana, a falácia das tentativas lógicas de dar conta da complexidade do mundo humano. Nesse sentido, uma das matrizes mais visíveis da ficção de Lydia Davis é Franz Kafka, não por acaso personagem principal de um dos contos mais perturbadores e divertidos do volume. "Poucos autores em atividade conseguem fazer as palavras na página terem mais valor. " - Jonathan Franzen

The first four collections in our revitalized Poetry Pamphlet series, established to highlight original work from writers around the world as well as forgotten treasures lost in the cracks of literary history. Included are: Two American Scenes: Our Village & A Journey on the Colorado River, by Lydia Davis and Eliot Weinberger; Sorting Facts, or Nineteen Ways of Looking at Chris Marker, by Susan Howe; The Helens of Troy, New York, by Bernadette Mayer; and Pneumatic Antiphonal, by Sylvia Legris.

"Two remarkable prose stylists — friends since high school — transform found material from the nineteenth century into mesmerizing poem-essays. It was given to me, in the nineteenth century, to spend a lifetime on his earth. Along with a few of the sorrows that are appointed unto men, I have had innumerable enjoyments; and the world has been to me, even from childhood, a great museum.— Lydia Davis. Bad rapids. Bradley is knocked over the side; his foot catches under the seat and he is dragged, head under water. Camped on a sand beach, the wind blows a hurricane. Sand piles over us like a snowdrift.— Eliot Weinberger."--Publisher''s website (viewed 11/29/2016).

Eleganti e arguti giochi linguistici, indagini filosofiche, battibecchi domestici, ma anche aforismi, ritratti, impressioni e storie, soprattutto di donne, sole o malate di solitudine, coppie avvolte in strati di silenzi, individui alle prese con l''imperscrutabilità del mondo. Con questo volume, che completa la pubblicazione in Italia di tutti i suoi racconti, Lydia Davis si conferma una delle più raffinate scrittrici di prosa contemporanee, per lo stile folgorante, razionale e seducente, la chirurgica esattezza delle descrizioni, la grazia sottile con cui ricostruisce le chimiche complesse delle relazioni umane. Perfette, luminose ed essenziali come diamanti, le sue short stories mettono in scena personaggi spesso senza nome, che hanno il singolare potere di raccontarci a noi stessi, incarnazioni spiazzanti delle più inconfessabili, stravaganti, umane idiosincrasie. POSTFAZIONE DI JAMES WOOD

Published in conjunction with the Documenta 13 exhibition in Kassel, Germany, the Documenta notebook series 100 Notes,100 Thoughts ranges from archival ephemera to conversations and commissioned essays. These notebooks express director Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev''s curatorial vision for Documenta 13.

Sfaccettate, paradossali, enigmatiche, argute, le storie di Lydia Davis scandagliano l''essere umano e i suoi rovelli con uno sguardo al contempo analitico e partecipe, dischiudono universi in poche righe e giocano con un linguaggio duttile, potente, capace di esplorare le forme letterarie più distanti, dal saggio sociale all''haiku, facendone esplodere la forza narrativa. In questi racconti, fino a oggi inediti in Italia, si incontrano e convivono coppie in crisi versate nell''arte dell''omissione, donne alle prese con sensi di inadeguatezza e solitudine, tempeste tropicali, dilemmi grammaticali, competizioni di buon gusto, reinterpretazioni dell''insonnia e dell''incubo kafkiano, sottili divagazioni sulla memoria della felicità.Un''indagine sofisticata e magistrale sul mondo dentro e fuori di noi, da un''autrice che è stata definita il "gigante silenzioso della letteratura americana".

«Una obra única en la literatura americana que será considerada dentro de un tiempo como una de las mayores y más insólitas contribuciones a las letras norteamericanas», JAMES WOOD, The New YorkerLydia Davis ha sido calificada como «una virtuosa del relato» (Salon) y «uno de los gigantes silenciosos de la ficción norteamericana» (Los Angeles Times Book Review). Pese a estar considerada una de las maestras del género, su obra es prácticamente inédita en España. Esta edición de sus cuentos completos reúne desde el innovador volumen Break It Down (1986) hasta el finalista del National Book Awarad Varieties of Disturbance (2007). La publicación de estos cuentos completos será sin duda un evento literario en nuestro país.«Aguda, hábil, irónica, subestimada y sorprendente», JOYCE CAROL OATES.«Pocos escritores de la actualidad hacen que las palabras escritas sean tan importantes», JONATHAN FRANZEN.

With her trademark precision, Davis turns her eye to three beloved cows, capturing them in celebratory, delighted detail.

In place of a blurb, here is but one (very short) story from the wonderful Lydia Davis, a story-teller celebrated for her emotional acuity, her formal inventiveness, and her ability to capture the human mind in overdrive: ''It is extraordinary,'' says one woman. ''It is extraordinary,'' says the other. Find out why fellow authors like Ali Smith, Dave Eggers, Jonathan Franzen love her writing so much in this landmark collection of all of her stories to date from across three decades. And why James Wood described this book in the New Yorker as ''a body of work probably unique in American writing'' and ''one of the great, strange American literary contributions''.

Third time''s a charm! The international authors of "Six Sentences" are back, and this time, no subject matter is taboo, and everything - and everyone - is fair game. The collection features all-new work from some of the finest practitioners of the 6S genre, including Diane Brady, Brian Steel, Joseph Grant, Adam J. Whitlatch, Kim Tairi, Jeanette Cheezum, Kevin Michaels, Emily McPhillips, Rod Drake, Juliana Perry, Linda Simoni-Wastila, Richard M. Johnson, Crorey Lawton, Madam Z, and the former Poet Laureate of Queens, New York, Hal Sirowitz.

In Electric Literature''s Autumn 2009 anthology of short fiction, Colson Whitehead charts the rise to fame of a truth-telling comedian. Stephen O''Connor transports us to a cabin in the woods, where a young woman attempting to finish her dissertation in solitude becomes increasingly convinced she''s not alone. Pasha Malla follows a young writer as he explores how tragedy influences art-and how life falls short of it. Marisa Silver tells the tale of three sisters who perceive the truth about their parents through the eyes of some unexpected visitors, and Lydia Davis'' solitary narrator acutely details the behavior of three cows who live in a pasture just across the road.

Promotional booklet includes the poem "Head, Heart" and the story "Break It Down."

“These stories . . . offer a peephole into a distinct fictional world . . . they attest to the author’s gift as an observer and archivist of emotion.” —The New York Times The thirty-four stories in this seminal collection powerfully display what have become Lydia Davis’s trademarks—dexterity, brevity, understatement, and surprise. Although the certainty of her prose suggests a world of almost clinical reason and clarity, her characters show us that life, thought, and language are full of disorder. Break It Down is Davis at her best. In the words of Jonathan Franzen, she is “a magician of self-consciousness.” Praise for Lydia Davis “Davis is one of the most precise and economical writers we have.” —Dave Eggers, McSweeney’s “An American virtuoso of the short story form.” —Salon “The best prose stylist in America.” —Rick Moody “[Davis has] a capacity to make language unleash entire states of existence.” —Siddhartha Deb, The New York Times

Publisher description

The cahier comprises three linked pieces by the translator and short story writer, Lydia Davis. First is ''A Proust Alphabet'', which gives an account of several words and issues of particular interest, encountered during the author''s recent translating of Marcel Proust''s Swann''s Way. There follows a short article on the French thinker and novelist Maurice Blanchot, entitled ''The Problem in Summarising Blanchot''. Finally comes a series of dreams and dreamlike moments, recounted in ''Swimming in Egypt: Dreams while Awake and Asleep''. The text is accompanied by ten tritone photographs by Ornan Rotem.