Our Strangers: Stories

"Lydia Davis is a sly miniaturist whose distinct blend of personal reflection, flash fiction, and poetic concision serve up little epiphanies in shot glass-sized portions . . . [Our Strangers is] as penetrating as anything she's written."

“Davis’ signature as a writer is her ability to wrest profound insight out of tiny, quotidian observations . . . The subtleties and specificities in Davis’ stories make them a pleasure to revisit, and with fresh eyes and more experiences under your belt, they manage to feel brand new each time.”

“What mainly preoccupies Davis is meticulous, almost obsessive observation of other people . . . The book feels, at times, like a compendium of off-kilter folk tales. But as the collection builds, a quiet statement begins to form: Davis seems to be providing a vision of how we might relate to the people who exist around us, of what an actual community might look like.”

“Davis, a meticulous fiction writer and an acclaimed translator, observes words with care and bemusement, tuned to the way different contexts alter their sound and meaning, sparking confusion or humor or heartbreak . . . Beautifully choreographed, braiding attentiveness with a sense of the surreal."

"Often no longer than a page, sometimes laid out like poetry, it captures some quotidian situation with nearly all the context stripped out so that, unbound by any definite place or time, it becomes charismatically strange.... There’s a sense throughout of the warmth and delightful randomness of these connections."

"A delight through and through . . . A good read and a good cause—an experiment worth investing in."

"I suspect that The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis will in time be seen as one of the great, strange American literary contributions, distinct and crookedly personal . . ."

"The best prose stylist in America."

"Davis is a magician . . . Few writers now working make the words on the page matter more."

"Among the true originals of contemporary American short fiction."

"She is our Vermeer, patiently observing and chronicling daily life but from angles odd and askew . . . Davis takes pure pleasure in the muscular act of looking, and invites us to look alongside her."

"Elegant, mundane, and as genius as ever, Lydia Davis has written another timeless and totally perfect collection."

"Most of the stories in Lydia Davis’ collection are less than two pages, yet they resonate in the author’s signature way by crystallizing sharp slivers of life."

"Our Strangers is an embarrassment of riches—a bounteous sampling for those new to Davis, or to flash fiction."

“An overflowing treasure chest of jewel-like stories . . . A collection that you'll want to keep on your bedside table by one of America’s most original short story writers."

“This lovely collection, which will be available only in libraries and independent bookstores . . . invites readers to revel in the magic of the mundane . . . Throughout, Davis revels in the glory of well-wrought details. These spot-on depictions of life’s low-key moments are best savored in small bursts.”