Lydia Davis

"From one of the most accomplished writers of our time comes another brilliant collection of short fiction. Artful, deft, and inventive, Lydia Davis' newest collection of stories delves into topics ranging from marriage to tiny insects. These stories are a celebration of language and careful observation that once again confirms Davis' sincere love and mastery of the form."--

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.

The Cows is a close study of the three much-loved cows that live across the road from the author. The piece, written with understated humor and empathy, is a series of detailed observations of the cows on different days and in different positions, moods, and times of the day.

Emma Bovary, the bored wife of a French provincial doctor, scans her solitude with desperate eyes, like a shipwrecked sailor searching for a white sail on the distant horizon. And when Emma's ship finally comes in, it carries with it vast and tragic consequences upon which her own life and the lives of those around her are wrecked. This new translation by Francis Steegmuller was published as a part of the centenary celebration of the original publishing...

"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...

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.

"An exquisite new translation of Colette's tragicomic masterpiece, a pair of novels exploring the relationship between an aging courtesan and a much younger man. Chéri and its sequel, The End of Chéri, mark Colette's finest achievements, in their brilliant, subtle, and frank investigations of love and power. Set in the Parisian demimonde in the last days of the Belle Époque, Chéri tells the story of Léa, a courtesan at the end of a successful...

A new literary journal arrives on the scene with unpublished works from such superstars as Dave Eggers, Louise Erdrich, Haruki Murakami, and others.
 
In this inaugural edition of Freeman’s, a new biannual of unpublished writing, former Granta editor and NBCC president John Freeman brings together the best new fiction, nonfiction, and poetry about that electrifying moment when we arrive.
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