Author of the Month: Lydia Davis
Selected by the Bookshop
Our first Author of the Month for 2026 is the American short story writer, novelist, essayist and translator Lydia Davis, who is, in the words of Colm Tóibín, ‘a high priestess of the startling’.
Her short stories, some no more than a sentence or two in length, are enigmatic parables, condensing the human experience in gem-like prose of great beauty. If you’ve not read her work before, start with The Collected Stories, winner of the Man Booker International Prize in 2013 and which was named by the New York Times as one of its ‘100 Best Books of the 21st Century’. If you have, then turn to Into the Weeds, a free-ranging exploration of the art of writing, published this month by Yale University Press.
Come along to Bury Place to see her books in the flesh, or browse our selection of them here.
From the publisher:
The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis is the complete collection of short fiction from the world-renowned Lydia Davis.WINNER OF THE MAN BOOKER INTERNATIONAL PRIZE 2013.'Big rejoicing: Lydia Davis has won the Man Booker International prize.…
From the publisher:
An illuminating reflection on the creative process from acclaimed fiction writer, essayist, and translator Lydia Davis“Reporting from the slipstream of her reading life, [Davis] offers less a new way to think than perhaps an old one,…
From the publisher:
A brand new collection of short fiction from Lydia Davis, 'a trailblazer in the world of short-form prose' New YorkerA FINANCIAL TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR: FICTION'A trailblazer in the world of short-form prose' New…
From the publisher:
Lydia Davis returns with a timeless collection of essays on literature and language.'Precise, concentrated, lyrical. No one writes like Lydia Davis, and everyone should read her' Hanif Kureishi'A writer as mighty as Kafka, as subtle as…
From the publisher:
Can't and Won't is the new collection from Lydia Davis, one of the greatest short story writers alive.WINNER OF THE MAN BOOKER INTERNATIONAL PRIZE 2013Lydia Davis has been universally acclaimed for the wit, insight and genre-defying formal…
From the publisher:
The first and only novel by Lydia Davis, winner of the Man Booker International Prize 2013.'It surprised me, over and over, to find that I was with such a young man. He was twenty-two when I met him. He turned twenty-three while I knew him,…
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