Most Popular Books by Lydia Davis

A woman attempts to recover from a failed love affair by writing a novel on the subject and finds it a difficult task. The hardest part is the chronology, who did what to whom first. She describes the affair in narrative form, without dialogue, from its happy beginnings--he was good looking, a poet, 12 years her junior--to the sordid finale when she turned to stalking him. By the author of Break It Down.

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''.

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.

“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

''A trailblazer in the world of short-form prose'' New YorkerLydia Davis is a virtuoso at detecting the seemingly casual, inconsequential surprises of daily life and pinning them for inspection. In Our Strangers, conversations are overheard and misheard, a special delivery letter is mistaken for a rare white butterfly, toddlers learning to speak identify a ping-pong ball as an egg and mumbled remarks betray a marriage. In the glow of Davis''s keen noticing, strangers can become like family and family like strangers.Our Strangers is a fascinating collection that confirms the genius of a writer whose every attention is transformative.

Stories by an experimental writer, ranging in length from a sentence to several pages. One story describes the way a few ill-chosen words can turn a minor dispute into high drama, another is on the bad luck of an explorer who accomplishes a perilous expedition, only to die on his way home. By the author of The End of the Story.

From one of the "true originals of contemporary American short fiction" ("San Francisco Chronicle") comes this crystalline collection of investigations into the ways in which human being perceive each other and themselves. An ALA Notable Book of the Year.

A collection of essays on translation, foreign languages, Proust, and one French city, from the master short-fiction writer and acclaimed translator Lydia Davis In Essays One, Lydia Davis, who has been called “a magician of self-consciousness” by Jonathan Franzen and “the best prose stylist in America” by Rick Moody, gathered a generous selection of her essays about best writing practices, representations of Jesus, early tourist photographs, and much more. Essays Two collects Davis’s writings and talks on her second profession: the art of translation. The award-winning translator from the French reflects on her experience translating Proust (“A work of creation in its own right.” —Claire Messud, Newsday), Madame Bovary (“[Flaubert’s] masterwork has been given the English translation it deserves.” —Kathryn Harrison, The New York Times Book Review), and Michel Leiris (“Magnificent.” —Tim Watson, Public Books). She also makes an extended visit to the French city of Arles, and writes about the varied adventures of learning Norwegian, Dutch, and Spanish through reading and translation. Davis, a 2003 MacArthur Fellow and the winner of the 2013 Man Booker International Prize for her fiction, here focuses her unique intelligence and idiosyncratic ways of understanding on the endlessly complex relations between languages. Together with Essays One, this provocative and delightful volume cements her status as one of our most original and beguiling writers.

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

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.

Since the original, prewar translation there has been no completely new rendering of the French original into English. This translation brings to the fore a more sharply engaged, comic and lucid Proust. IN SEARCH OF LOST TIME is one of the greatest, most enjoyable reading experiences in any language. As the great story unfolds from its magical opening scenes to its devastating end, it is the Penguin Proust that makes Proust accessible to a new generation. Each book is translated by a different, superb translator working under the general editorship of Professor Christopher Prendergast.

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.

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.

Memoirs of a South Sea physician.

Este libro surgió con bastante naturalidad: pensé que era hora de recopilar los textos de no ficción que había tenido la oportunidad de escribir a lo largo de las décadas y reunirlos en un solo volumen. Como no eran para nada escasos, tuve que decidir si hacer un solo tomo, grueso, o dos más razonables. Pedí opiniones y conté votos, sopesé los pros y los contras, y, al final, me decidí por hacer dos. Así reflejaría, en cierta medida, dos de las ocupaciones principales de mi vida: la escritura y la traducción. Este es el primer tomo. En este libro, Lydia Davis recuerda a los escritores que influyeron tempranamente en su escritura, declara cuáles son sus cinco cuentos favoritos y analiza la obra de aquellos que la interpelaron, por diferentes motivos, a lo largo de los años: Lucia Berlin, Gustave Flaubert, Rae Armantrout, Jane Bowles, entre otros. También se detiene en las artes visuales, y reflexiona sobre la obra de Joan Mitchell y de Alan Cote e indaga en las primeras fotografías de viajes. Finalmente, con absoluta generosidad, aborda la escritura desde su propia práctica: así comparte diferentes versiones de un mismo texto y elabora un ensayo imprescindible con treinta recomendaciones para una buena rutina de escritura. “Aguda, hábil, irónica, sobria y constantemente sorprendente”. Joyce Carol Oates “Una escritora atrevida, excitantemente inteligente y, a menudo, muy divertida”. Ali Smith

Uma das vozes mais aclamadas da literatura norte-americana contemporânea em livro definitivo sobre as relações amorosas Ao tentar reconstituir as lembranças de um romance fracassado, a protagonista de O fim da história se confunde, inventa, conta e reconta episódios que não temos certeza se de fato aconteceram. Ao mesmo tempo que tenta escrever um livro sobre a trajetória do casal, ela se embrenha nos recantos da memória, que escolhe caminhos tortuosos para dar sentido a eventos conduzidos pelo amor e pelo fim dele.

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

A selection of essays on writing and reading by the master short-fiction writer Lydia Davis Lydia Davis is a writer whose originality, influence, and wit are beyond compare. Jonathan Franzen has called her ¿a magician of self-consciousness,¿ while Rick Moody hails her as "the best prose stylist in America." And for Claire Messud, ¿Davis''s signal gift is to make us feel alive.¿ Best known for her masterful short stories and translations, Davis¿s gifts extend equally to her nonfiction. In Essays One, Davis has, for the first time, gathered a selection of essays, commentaries, and lectures composed over the past five decades. In this first of two volumes, her subjects range from her earliest influences to her favorite short stories, from John Ashbery¿s translation of Rimbaud to Alan Cote¿s painting, and from the Shepherd¿s Psalm to early tourist photographs. On display is the development and range of one of the sharpest, most capacious minds writing today.

Swann''s Way is one of the preeminent novels of childhood - a sensitive boy''s impressions of his family and neighbors, all brought dazzlingly back to life years later by the famous taste of a madeleine. It also enfolds the short novel Swann''s Love, an incomparable study of sexual jealousy, which becomes a crucial part of the vast, unfolding structure of In Search of Lost Time. The first volume of the book that established Proust as one of the finest voices of the modern age-satirical, skeptical, confiding, and endlessly varied in his response to the human condition, Swann''s Way also stands on its own as a perfect rendering of a life in art, of the past re-created through memory.