{"product_id":"things-i-dont-want-to-know-on-writing-9781635572247","title":"Things I Don't Want to Know: On Writing","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA shimmering jewel of a book about writing from two-time Booker Prize finalist Deborah Levy, to publish alongside her new work of nonfiction, \u003ci\u003eThe Cost of Living\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBlending personal history, gender politics, philosophy, and literary theory into a luminescent treatise on writing, love, and loss, \u003ci\u003eThings I Don't Want to Know \u003c\/i\u003eis Deborah Levy's witty response to George Orwell's influential essay \"Why I Write.\" Orwell identified four reasons he was driven to hammer at his typewriter--political purpose, historical impulse, sheer egoism, and aesthetic enthusiasm--and Levy's newest work riffs on these same commitments from a female writer's perspective. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAs she struggles to balance womanhood, motherhood, and her writing career, Levy identifies some of the real-life experiences that have shaped her novels, including her family's emigration from South Africa in the era of apartheid; her teenage years in the UK where she played at being a writer in the company of builders and bus drivers in cheap diners; and her theater-writing days touring Poland in the midst of Eastern Europe's economic crisis, where she observed how a soldier tenderly kissed the women in his life goodbye. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eSpanning continents (Africa and Europe) and decades (we meet the writer at seven, fifteen, and fifty), \u003ci\u003eThings I Don't Want to Know \u003c\/i\u003ebrings the reader into a writer's heart.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eDeborah Levy, \u003c\/b\u003e \u003cb\u003eFRSL\u003c\/b\u003e, writes fiction, plays, and poetry. Her work has been staged by the Royal Shakespeare Company, widely broadcast on the BBC, and translated into fourteen languages. The author of highly praised novels, including \u003ci\u003eHot Milk \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eSwimming Home\u003c\/i\u003e (both Man Booker Prize finalists), \u003ci\u003eThe Unloved\u003c\/i\u003e, and\u003ci\u003e Billy and Girl\u003c\/i\u003e, and the story collection \u003ci\u003eBlack Vodka\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003eshe lives in Londo\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Bloomsbury Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50615521640722,"sku":"9781635572247","price":12.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_164e2876-b18b-4e3c-9c40-3f5e596466e2.jpg?v=1732492507","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/things-i-dont-want-to-know-on-writing-9781635572247","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}