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Nov 12, 2025 5:03 AM

Author:Lydia Davis

Essays

From the International Man Booker Prize-winning author of Can't and Won't and The End of the Story - a crystalline collection of literary essays for fans of Susan Sontag and Joan Didion

'She's a joy. There's no writer quite like her' Ali Smith

'Among my most favourite writers. Read her now!' A. M. Homes

The visionary, fearless Lydia Davis presents a dazzling collection of essays on reading and writing, exploring the full scope of possibility within existing forms of literature and considering how we might challenge and reinvent these forms.

Through Thomas Pynchon, Michel Leiris, Maurice Blanchot, Lucia Berlin, Joan Mitchell and others, he author considers her many creative influences. And, through these lenses, she returns to her own writing process, her relationship to language and the written word. Beautifully formed, thought-provoking, playful and illuminating, these pieces are a masterclass in reading and writing.

Reviews

a cornucopia of illuminating and timeless observations on literature, art, and the craft of writing.

—— Publisher's Weekly

The unclassifiable writer and translator's collected nonfiction shows us a brilliant mind at work.

—— The New Republic

the beloved American author reflects on reading and writing in typically funny, incisive and tender style.

—— Stylist

Davis does for the essay what one of her subjects-Rimbaud-did for the prose poem: fires language with emotive, radiant wisdom.

—— Library Journal

masterful, lucid collection . . . no single piece could capture the essence of this extraordinary writer . . . Read these essays: see everything around you in a clear, fresh light

—— New Statesman

A blood and thunder tale for those grieving the passing of Penny Dreadful. This novel is like immersing yourself in a Hammer horror film, and I mean that, of course, as great praise.

—— STEPHEN VOLK

A compelling, deep, dark drama about Dracula’s origin. Even I had to keep the lights on when reading this book!

—— JOHN SAUL, author of Suffer the Children

A terrifying and compelling prequel that reveals how a young Bram Stoker confronted evil to craft a masterpiece.

—— LIBRARY JOURNAL

Whatever fiendish bargain Stoker and Barker struck to resurrect the voice of Bram Stoker with such authenticity and aplomb, it was worth it, at least to their mere mortal readers. Dracul is a genius and fevered nightmare of Gothic madness, each page seeping with ominous dread and escalating horror. It is a prequel more than just worthy of the original novel—it is sure to be an undying classic of its own, haunting, terrifying and entertaining generations to come.

—— ERIC RICKSTAD, author of What Remains of Her and The Silent Girls

Very scary . . . a big book that will no doubt be a hit among monster-movie and horror lit fans—and for good reason.

—— KIRKUS REVIEWS

J.D. Barker is a one-of-a-kind writer and that’s a rare and special thing. Stephen King comes to mind and Lee Child, John Sanford. All one-of-a-kinds. Don’t miss anything J.D. writes.

—— JAMES PATTERSON

A . . . dread-infused atmosphere not at all that far from Poe.

—— Irish Times

Dracul is utterly compelling, not to mention terrifying . . . it truly is the best possible reading material for October 31st.

—— Irish Examiner

This Dracula is the vicious, bloodthirsty, malevolent 'strigori' we know and love to hate.

—— Irish Independent

Dracul is a fat, entertaining novel which mixes fact and fiction with lusty relish . . . Written, like its illustrious antecedent, in epistolary form it also mimics the darkness of the original.

—— RTE Guide

An intriguing tale of bloodlust, horror and resurrection . . . [Dracul] builds to an exciting and suspenseful climax.

—— Mail on Sunday

In weaving emotion into literary gold, truth has never been this painfully told, or this beautiful.

—— Courttia Newland

The best poetry out since Warsan Shire.

—— Symeon Brown

A fast-paces, dense, poetic, original and bewitching story by an important new writer. That Reminds Me will long be remembered by readers.

—— Alain Mabanckou

Deserves the same recognition that greeted Max Porter's similarly constructed fictionalised memoir Grief is the Thing With Feathers... uses its broken-up style to explore experiences that defy easy comprehension. There is nothing indulgent about this quietly observed account of a black man Owusu gives the name of K... There is a physicality to his writing, the impression of incoherent feelings being wrestled into shape, that lends his book heft. K's future is, in the end, ambiguous, but Owusu's surely gleams bright.

—— Claire Allfree , Metro

A bold prose poem written in novella form, That Reminds Me is one of the most powerful pieces of writing to be published in 2019.

—— Foyles

The latest release from Stormzy's increasingly impressive #Merky imprint, this is a stylistically ambitious memoir of a precarious Tottenham upbringing. Owusu writes with a poet's gift for seemingly incidental observation in a potent story that's left deliberately, troublingly fragmented.

—— Metro

A virtuosic debut by a raw new talent. An honest and timely evaluation of a black man's struggle to belong and later come to terms with failing mental health. Utterly convincing and deeply sad, Owusu's storytelling will bring readers to tears.

—— Scarlett Sangster , The Irish News

Derek Owusu is not just a brilliant writer, he’s a deep thinker. Anything he does is relevant, and meaningful. It would be easy to say that he is mainly concerned with the condition of young black men, but in truth he speaks truth to all of us.

—— Benjamin Zephaniah

A magnificent achievement.

—— Paul Gilroy

Written with candour and verve, and full of moments of heart-stopping anguish and beauty.

—— Stephen Kelman
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