About the Author

Lydia Davis is the author of one novel and several collections of short fiction, the latest of which is Samuel Johnson Is Indignant. She is also the translator of numerous works from the French by, among others, Maurice Blanchot, Pierre Jean Jouve and Michel Leiris, and was recently named a Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government.

Reviews

The most revolutionary collection of stories by an American in twenty-five years -- John Freeman * Boston Globe * Profound, beautiful, moving. You will go back to a little gem that has wormed its way into your mind and stuck there, and discover that it is indeed a little gem, which sparkles a different way each time and flashes with a brief beauty or hidden meaning -- Susan Hill * Spectator * Davis hints insistently at how abundant nothingness can be when we bother to look at it -- Joshua Cohen * Times Literary Supplement * Among my most favourite writers. Read her now! -- A. M. Homes Can't and Won't shows Davis using precise language to articulate the kind of ideas and impressions which are usually left to float around the subconscious -- Max Liu * Independent *