Our Strangers
by Lydia Davis
Lydia Davis is a virtuoso at detecting the seemingly casual, inconsequential surprises of daily life and pinning them for inspection. In Our Strangers, conversations are overheard and misheard, a special delivery letter is mistaken for a rare white butterfly, toddlers learning to speak identify a ping-pong ball as an egg and mumbled remarks betray a marriage. In the glow of Davis’s keen noticing, strangers can become like family and family like strangers.
Our Strangers is a fascinating collection that confirms the genius of a writer whose every attention is transformative.
"A trailblazer in the world of short-form prose" - New Yorker
“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.” - Heller McAlpin, NPR
“Life is boring. Lydia Davis’s new book makes that fascinating.” - Chelsea Leu, New York Times
"Lydia Davis is a miniaturist with sizable intentions. Her micro-stories, many just a couple of lines are constrained in length only." - Alec Clark, The Guardian
"One of the greatest living practitioners of the short story form delivers an exquisite collection of miniatures suffused with nuance and empathy." - Waterstones Book Club
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