Black Vodka: Ten Stories

The stories in Black Vodka, by acclaimed author Deborah Levy, are perfectly formed worlds unto themselves, written in elegant yet economical prose. She is a master of the short story, exploring loneliness and belonging; violence and tenderness; the ephemeral and the solid; the grotesque and the beautiful; love and infidelity; and fluid identities national, cultural, and personal.

In ?Shining a Light,? a woman?s lost luggage is juxtaposed with far more serious losses. An icy woman seduces a broken man in ?Vienna,? and a man?s empathy threatens to destroy him in ?Stardust Nation.? ?Cave Girl? features a girl who wants to be a different kind of woman?she succeeds in a shocking way. A deformed man seeks beauty amid his angst in the title story.

These are twenty-first century lives dissected with razor-sharp humor and curiosity. Published simultaneously with Things I Don?t Want to Know: On Writing, Levy?s stories will send you tumbling into a rabbit hole, and you won't be able to scramble out until long after you?ve turned the last page.

?Deborah Levy showed she is a top-hitting novelist with a Man Booker Prize shortlist place for Swimming Home. Can she conquer the genre which demands she fashion perfect jewels? . . . Yes, Levy can do macro- and microcosm. These tales of unconventional love reinforce her reputation as a major contemporary writer who never pulls her punches.? ?The Independent