Black Vodka: Ten Stories - Softcover

Deborah Levy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1908276169 ISBN 13: 9781908276162

Publisher: And Other Stories, 2012

Synopsis

Black Vodka

About this title

Review

'There is a sexy hauteur in Deborah Levy's prose reminiscent of the voice of Marianne Faithfull. The rasping, deadpan delivery of these ten new stories emit a dreamy harshness at once jaded and invigorating.' Catherine Taylor, New Statesman -------- 'Here, as in her previous plays, stories and novels, her writing exhibits a rhetorical severity which has a mythic, lullaby quality, experimental and at the same time simple and beautiful.' Alex Christofi, The Literateur -------- 'fabulously jolting', 'accomplished and uncanny', 'The strange, unpredictable journey is worth it.' Alex Clark, The Guardian -------- 'Levy's sinister, near-private language' provides 'more signs that her work is mellowing - these ominous, odd, erotic stories burrow deep into your brain.' Anthony Cummins, Financial Times -------- 'Levy's latest collection of short stories explores love, loss, and betrayal as well as the small cruelties that play out in modern day lives through elegantly conceived and executed prose.' Lucy Popescu, The Independent on Sunday -------- 'Deborah Levy's Black Vodka is a collection of mischievous vignettes of Mitteleuropa in the almost quarter of a century since the fall of the Berlin Wall.' Catherine Taylor, The Telegraph -------- 'The full work lingers on as more than the sum of its parts, so that each elliptical story becomes, by virtue of inclusion in the collective, its own second, larger narrative.' Fiona Melrose, Writer's Hub -------- '[a] sharply surreal collection of pieces - Like Lydia Davis, Levy pushes the idea of 'story' - these are shots, potent and punchy, to be read individually and savoured rather than drunk down in one go.' Julia Bell, Books of the Year, Writer's Hub -------- 'Humane in its perception, dazzling in its originality and crystalline in its expression.' Isabel Costello, The Literary Sofa -------- 'It seems only fitting that [Levy] follows her tour-de-force with this selection of her pared-down short fiction - [her] pen is a volatile weapon.' Lucy Scholes, The Observer -------- 'Deborah Levy is one of the most exciting voices in contemporary British fiction, and her new collection, Black Vodka, delivers the sophisticated and astringent tone her readers have long come to expect.' Lauren Elkin, TLS -------- 'These tales of unconventional love reinforce Levy's reputation as a major contemporary writer who never pulls her punches.' Julia Pascal, The Independent -------- 'Black Vodka's stories, characters and settings live and breathe beyond the last page detailing their lives - Somewhere, these stories live on, testament to the vivid prose and razor sharp structure of Levy's writing.' Jennie Blake, Book Hugger -------- 'Excellent collection Black Vodka - It's beautifully and subtly done; a tale obliquely told through objects lost and vivid impressions of a couple of summer days - All the stories in this collection are worth lingering over and rereading.' Jenny Wren and Bella Wilfer -------- 'There is darkness here, puzzlement and often a sensation that you need to read each story again and again to get more from it - so I did - A brilliant collection indeed.' Savidge Reads -------- 'Metropolitan and knowingly sophisticated, Levy's sparse, elegant stories are poetic and faintly surreal'. Phil Baker, The Sunday Times ------ --'Black Vodka is an inexhaustible feast. Its richness can be ascribed in part to that style of weighted reticence we sense at work in Swimming Home.' Kevin Breathnach, The Stinging Fly

About the Author

Deborah Levy writes fiction, plays and poetry. Her work has been staged by the Royal Shakespeare Company, and she is the author of highly praised books including Beautiful Mutants, Swallowing Geography and Billy and Girl. Her most recent novel, Swimming Home (2011, And Other Stories) was shortlisted for the 2012 Man Booker Prize. Black Vodka, the title story in this collection, was shortlisted for the 2012 BBC International Short Story Competition

Edition details

• Publisher: And Other Stories
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1908276169
• ISBN 13: 9781908276162
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 125