New Releases by Lydia Davis

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.

Il venait d''avoir vingt-deux ans, elle en avait près de trente-quatre, et ils étaient amants. Il était étudiant sans le sou, et elle, universitaire. Il était beau et insaisissable, elle ne manquait pas de charme, mais plutôt de personnalité. Il avait déjà eu pas mal de maîtresses, elle quelques amants. Il pouvait se montrer distant avec elle, même après l''étreinte, elle lui vouait un amour sans limites. Et puis un jour, il lui dit : " C''est fini ", pour ne jamais revenir. Il la laissa seule avec des souvenirs qu''elle se mit à ressasser jusqu''à la nausée, jusqu''au vertige, jusqu''au silence. D''une histoire apparemment banale à pleurer, Lydia Davis fait un chant d''amour. Elle analyse avec une exigence exemplaire et une sensibilité à fleur de peau les raisons d''une séparation. Deux questions reviennent comme un leitmotiv : Que sait-on de l''autre ? Que sait-on de soi ? Ses mots sont simples mais tranchants, et son regard se révèle d''une exceptionnelle acuité.

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.

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.

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 entertaining 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, University of Cambridge.

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.

Memoirs of a South Sea physician.

"A selection of essays on writing and reading by the master short-fiction writer Lydia Davis"--

Una nuova raccolta di narrativa breve dell''acclamata maestra della forma, vincitrice del Man Booker International Prize, Lydia Davis. Nel corso della sua straordinaria carriera di scrittrice, Lydia Davis ha affinato delle capacità davvero uniche nell''individuare le sorprese apparentemente casuali e insignificanti che costellano la nostra vita quotidiana per poi esaminarle con un''attenzione quasi entomologica. In questa raccolta di storie ora lunghe, ora brevi, ora brevissime, troviamo conversazioni ascoltate per caso (e a volte fraintese) che si posizionano da qualche parte nello spettro tra il capriccio e la profondità (la bilancia è molto a favore del capriccio), una lettera che viene scambiata per una rara farfalla bianca, dei bambini che stanno imparando a parlare che identificano una pallina da ping-pong come un uovo, e lettere di reclamo. E poi ancora sogni, piccoli momenti di attrito domestico, e-mail di spam rese poetiche da interruzioni di riga, umorismo ironico ("Con eccellente maestria / eccolo lassù sulla sua scala, / a rovinare con cura / la casa più antica della città"), storie che parlano di invecchiamento e di morte. E molto molto altro. È così che, illuminati dai bagliori di questa incredibile capacità di osservare, gli estranei ci possono diventare familiari e i familiari estranei.