Deborah Levy je autorka s pozoruhodným literárnym rozsahom, ktorá začala svoju kariéru písaním divadelných hier, ktoré sa vyznačovali intelektuálnou náročnosťou a poetickou fantáziou. Po úspechoch na divadelnej scéne objavila slobodu písania románov, ktorá jej umožnila plne rozvinúť jej jedinečný hlas. Jej diela sa ponárajú do zložitých psychologických krajín a často skúmajú témy identity a hľadania zmyslu. Levyová sa nebojí experimentovať s formou aj obsahom, čím čitateľom ponúka provokatívny a nezabudnuteľný literárny zážitok.
Mladá antropologička Sofia sa pokúša vyriešiť záhadu nevysvetliteľnej dlhej choroby svojej matky Rose. Matkine ustavičné ponosy ju frustrujú, no zjavne jej vyhovuje, že sa nemusí osamostatniť a riešiť svoj neuspokojivý život dospelej ženy. Spolu s matkou odcestujú na horúce vyprahnuté pobrežie Španielska, aby tam spolu navštívili slávneho špecialistu, ktorý je ich poslednou nádejou, a dúfajú, že im pomôže vyriešiť záhadnú paralýzu Rosiných nôh.
As he arrives with his family at the villa in the hills above Nice, Joe sees a body in the swimming pool. But the girl is very much alive. She is Kitty Finch: a self-proclaimed botanist with green-painted fingernails, walking naked out of the water and into the heart of their holiday. Why is she there? What does she want from them all? And why does Joe's enigmatic wife allow her to remain? Profound and thrilling, Swimming Home reveals how the most devastating secrets are the ones we keep from ourselves.
Three bicycles. Seven ghosts. A crumbling apartment block on the hill. Fame. Tenderness. The statue of Peter Pan. Silk. Melancholy. The banana tree. A Pandemic. A love story. From a leading thinker and writer, this final installment in a critically acclaimed series offers an exhilarating and intimate meditation on home and the spectres that haunt it. Following the success of the previous volume, this work explores what women, both seen and unseen, possess at the end of their lives—both tangible property and intangible values often overlooked by society. It questions ownership and the impact of patriarchy on identity. Real estate becomes a complex metaphor for the lives women navigate, as they buy, sell, and inherit while also confronting what must be discarded. Levy's prose is wise, subtle, and ironic, with each sentence reflecting clarity and poise. Critics have praised her work as extraordinary and beautiful, filled with wit and sharp insights. This book promises to resonate deeply with readers, inviting them to reflect on the intricate relationship between identity, ownership, and the legacies we leave behind.
A GUARDIAN BEST BOOK OF THE 21ST CENTURY WINNER OF THE PRIX FEMINA ETRANGER 2020 Following on from the critically acclaimed Things I Don't Want to Know, discover the powerful second memoir in Deborah Levy's essential three-part 'Living Autobiography'. 'I can't think of any writer aside from Virginia Woolf who writes better about what it is to be a woman' Observer _________________________________ 'Life falls apart. We try to get a grip and hold it together. And then we realise we don't want to hold it together . . .' The final instalment in Deborah Levy's critically acclaimed 'Living Autobiography', Real Estate, is available now. _________________________________ 'I just haven't stopped reading it . . . it talks so beautifully about being a woman' Billie Piper on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs 'It is the story of every woman throughout history who has expended her love and labour on making a home that turns out to serve the needs of everyone except herself. Wonderful' Guardian 'Wise, subtle and ironic, Levy's every sentence is a masterpiece of clarity and poise . . . a brilliant writer' Daily Telegraph 'A graceful and lyrical rumination on the questions, "What is a woman for? What should a woman be?"' Tatler 'Extraordinary and beautiful, suffused with wit and razor-sharp insights' Financial Times
In this brilliant, inventive, tragic farce, Deborah Levy creates the ultimate dysfunctional kids, Billy and his sister Girl. Apparently abandoned years ago by their parents, they now live alone somewhere in England. Girl spends much of her time trying to find their mother, going to strangers' doors and addressing whatever Prozac woman who answers as "Mom." Billy spends his time fantasizing a future in which he will be famous, perhaps in the United States as a movie star, or as a psychiatrist, or as a doctor to blondes with breast enlargements, or as the author of "Billy England's Book of Pain." Together they both support and torture each other, barely able to remember their pasts but intent on forging a future that will bring them happiness and reunite them with the ever-elusive Mom. Billy and Girl are every boy and girl reeling from the pain of their childhoods, forgetting what they need to forget, inventing worlds they think will be better, but usually just prolonging nightmares as they begin to create--or so it seems--alternative personalities that will allow them to survive and conquer and punish. In the end, the reader is as bewildered as Billy and Girl--have they found Mom and a semblance of family, or are, they completely out of control and ready to explode?
Taking George Orwell's famous essay, 'Why I Write', as a jumping-off point, Deborah Levy offers her own indispensable reflections of the writing life. With wit, clarity and calm brilliance, she considers how the writer must stake claim to that contested territory and shape it to her need. It is a work of dazzling insight and deep psychological succour, from one of our most vital contemporary writers. This first volume of the trilogy focuses on the writer as a young woman - the confusion and turbulence of youth, and the uncertainties of carving an identity as a writer. The second volume, The Cost of Living, speaks to the challenges of middle age as a writer and a woman - motherhood, separation, bereavement.
A collection of short stories by young British writers, this provides an introduction to the work of Iain Banks, Peter Benson, H.S. Bhabra, James Buchan, Patricia Ferguson, Ronald Frame, Patrick Gale, Carlo Gebler, James Lasdun, Deborah Levy, Adam Lively, Aidan Mathews, Candia McWilliam, Geoff Nicholson, Tim Parks, Philip Ridley, Joan Smith, Rupert Thomson, Daisy Waugh and Mathew Yorke. Many of these have already received critical acclaim. The collection is introduced by Graham Swift, author of "Waterland" and "Out of this World".
The mesmerising new novel from the twice Booker-shortlisted author of Hot Milk and Swimming Home At the height of her career, concert pianist Elsa M. Anderson - former child prodigy, now in her thirties - walks off the stage in Vienna, mid-performance. Now she is in Athens, watching as another young woman, a stranger but uncannily familiar - almost her double - purchases a pair of mechanical dancing horses at a flea market. Elsa wants the horses too, but there are no more for sale. She drifts to the ferry port, on the run from her talent and her history. So begins a journey across Europe, shadowed by the elusive woman who bought the dancing horses. A dazzling portrait of melancholy and metamorphosis, August Blue uncovers the ways in which we seek to lose an old story, find ourselves in others and create ourselves anew. 'A writer at the peak of her talents' Lisa Appignanesi 'There's no one touching the brilliance of Deborah Levy's prose today' Lee Rourke 'Levy's strength is her originality of thought and expression' Jeanette Winterson
"She is a shimmering, melancholy angel, flown from Paradise to save him from the suburbs of hell. He an accountant, dreaming of a white Christmas, a little garden and someone to love. A storm of romance and slapstick, of heavenly and earthly delights, in this dystopian philosophical poem about individual freedom and the search for the good life."--Back cover
This exciting new masterpiece from Deborah Levy, longlisted for the Booker Prize and shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize, is a beguiling fever dream of a novel. It offers an ice-cold critique of patriarchy and the darkness of 20th-century Europe. In 1988, Saul Adler, a narcissistic young historian, is hit by a car on Abbey Road but appears unscathed. After a brief encounter with his art student girlfriend, Jennifer Moreau, he leaves for communist East Berlin just months before the Wall falls. There, he meets his assigned translator and her sister, who claims to have seen a jaguar in the city. As Saul navigates love, his troubled relationship with his authoritarian father, and a friendship with a possibly dubious hippy named Rainer, he grapples with the complexities of history and memory. The narrative slips between time zones, exploring what we perceive and overlook, the consequences of carelessness, and the burdens of history. Levy's electrifying prose is described as clever and raw, presenting a dizzying tale that challenges conventions and delves into life across time and borders.
