Our Strangers: Stories
Only available at independent bookstores and libraries, by request of the author.
From one of the most accomplished writers of our time comes another brilliant collection of short fiction. Artful, deft, and inventive; Lydia Davis’ newest collection of stories delves into topics ranging from marriage to tiny insects. These stories are a celebration of language and careful observation that once again confirms Davis’ sincere love and mastery of the form.
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Praise for Lydia Davis:
“She is the shorter Proust among us. She has the sensitivity to track the stuff that is so evanescent it flies right by the rest of us. But as it does so it leaves enough of a trace that when you read her you do it with a sense of recognition.” - Jonathan Franzen
"one of the most original minds in American fiction today.”―Dana Goodyear, The New Yorker
“Sharp, deft, ironic, understated, and consistently surprising.” —Joyce Carol Oates
“One of the best writers in America” - O, The Oprah Magazine
Lydia Davis is the author of one novel and seven collections of stories, including most recently Can't and Won't (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2014), as well as two collections of non-fiction, Essays One (FSG, 2019) and Essays Two (FSG, 2021). She has won awards for her translations of works from the French which include Flaubert's Madame Bovary (Viking Penguin, 2010) and Proust's Swann's Way (Viking Penguin, 2002), and has also translated from other languages, most notably the very short stories of the Dutch writer A.L. Snijders (Night Train, New Directions, 2021). Among other honors, she was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2003, both the Award of Merit from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Man Booker International Prize in 2013 for her fiction and, in 2020, the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story. She has been decorated as both Chevalier and Officier of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government for her fiction and translation. She lives in upstate New York.
"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." —Publishers Weekly
"In Our Strangers, Davis—the reigning queen of flash fiction—does what Davis does best, compiling another collection of sweet, short, punch-to-the-heart pieces of writing. Often only one paragraph in length, or a couple lines of dialogue, these stories tell of mundanity with a poet’s eye for meaning." —Julia Hass, Literary Hub
“Davis returns with a story collection written with her characteristic wit and dazzling prose. In an extremely badass move against the corporate monopoly on bookselling, Davis will not be selling the book via Amazon, releasing it only in physical bookshops and select online outlets such as Bookshop.org.” —The Millions
"Our Strangers is an embarrassment of riches… It mines everyday life for its humor and pathos, thrilling to the use of language and taking pleasure in the ridiculous and arbitrary." —Rebecca Foster, Shelf Awareness
