Essays One

"[Davis] is our Vermeer, patiently observing and chronicling daily life but from angles odd and askew. . . These pieces exalt clear language and the complicated work of looking and seeing. . . Davis takes pure pleasure in the muscular act of looking, and invites us to look alongside her." --Parul Sehgal, The New York Times

"She's so deeply cerebral it's perhaps counterintuitive that Davis is a companionable presence. She's erudite, with catholic interests, and earnest but not humorless. This is the kind of book you could read alone in a restaurant and feel you're lost in a stimulating conversation." --Rumaan Alam, The New Republic

"The first in a planned two-volume collection of the nonfiction of short story author Davis (Samuel Johnson Is Indignant) proves a cornucopia of illuminating and timeless observations on literature, art, and the craft of writing . . . Fans of Davis's unfailingly clever work should add this volume to their collection, and creative writers of every genre should take the opportunity to learn from a legend." --Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

"One gets the impression that even the most fleeting of pieces in "Essays One," such as a few paragraphs about her favorite short stories, written for a British tabloid, has been given the precise and playful Lydia Davis treatment: 'Subtly, or less subtly, you always want to surprise a reader.'"-- Brian Dillon, The New York Times Book Review

"Lively essays bound to stimulate debate among readers of global literature." --Kirkus Reviews

"Davis, an innovative fiction writer, is also an erudite essayist, critic and translator, with an ever-questing mind evident in these 33 essays . . . An essential literary companion." --Jane Ciabattari, BBC

"Lydia Davis is one of those rare cases: an ambidextrous author who is just as capable of bowling a reader over with a short story as she is with an essay." --Malcolm Forbes, Star Tribune

"Lydia Davis is immensely learned; that is clear not only from her translation work but also from her distinguished discussions of the works she has translated. But in much of her nonfiction, she is also a master of the energies that drive her fiction, with its plain style, irony, sensitivity, and elegantly subdued power." --Sandra M. Gilbert, The American Scholar

"Davis is putting her more than 30 years of experience into a selection of essays on the craft of reading and writing; the first of the two-volume set comes out this fall. Don't expect run-of-the-mill advice like "show don't tell" here, though; Davis has made a career out of breaking the established rules . . ." --The Week