The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis

by Lydia Davis

'Davis's short stories are perfected economies, witty devices, precision-made, primed to release intelligence, philosophy, hilarity. They celebrate the thinking universe while they redefine the possibilities of the form. There is no other writer quite like her' Ali Smith

Find out why fellow authors like Ali Smith, Dave Eggers, Jonathan Franzen love Lydia Davis's 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'.

• ISBN10: 024114504X
• ISBN13: 9780241145043
• Publish Date: 5 August 2010 (first published 29 September 2009)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 3 August 2011
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
• Imprint: Hamish Hamilton Ltd
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 752
• Language: English

Reviews

[jamiereadthis]

These stories don’t so much bloom and bleed over their blank pages as hold their breath, fill up their lungs and wait for you to tiptoe past. They’re claustrophobic and lonely, a three floor walk-up to an elbow apartment with pale sunlight and the city below under glass.

“Break It Down,” though, gets five stars.