{"product_id":"varieties-of-disturbance-stories-9780374281731","title":"Varieties of Disturbance: Stories","description":"\u003cp\u003eLydia Davis has been called \"one of the quiet giants in the world of American fiction\" (\u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e), \"an American virtuoso of the short story form\" (\u003ci\u003eSalon\u003c\/i\u003e), an innovator who attempts \"to remake the model of the modern short story\" (\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e). Her admirers include Grace Paley, Jonathan Franzen, and Zadie Smith; as \u003ci\u003eTime \u003c\/i\u003emagazine observed, her stories are \"moving . . . and somehow inevitable, as if she has written what we were all on the verge of thinking.\" \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eVarieties of Disturbance\u003c\/i\u003e, her fourth collection, Davis extends her reach as never before in stories that take every form from sociological studies to concise poems. Her subjects include the five senses, fourth-graders, good taste, and tropical storms. She offers a reinterpretation of insomnia and re-creates the ordeals of Kafka in the kitchen. She questions the lengths to which one should go to save the life of a caterpillar, proposes a clear account of the sexual act, rides the bus, probes the limits of marital fidelity, and unlocks the secret to a long and happy life. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eNo two of these fictions are alike. And yet in each, Davis rearranges our view of the world by looking beyond our preconceptions to a bizarre truth, a source of delight and surprise. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eVarieties of Disturbance\u003c\/i\u003e is a 2007 National Book Award Finalist for Fiction.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLYDIA DAVIS\u003c\/b\u003e is the author of one novel and five story collections, most recently \u003ci\u003eCan't and Won't\u003c\/i\u003e. She is also the acclaimed translator of \u003ci\u003eSwann's Way\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eMadame Bovary\u003c\/i\u003e, both of which were awarded the French-American Foundation Translation Prize. \u003ci\u003eThe Collected Stories of Lydia Davis\u003c\/i\u003e was described by James Wood in \u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker \u003c\/i\u003eas a \"grand cumulative achievement.\" She is the winner of the 2013 Man Booker International Prize.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Picador USA","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50726078152978,"sku":"9780374281731","price":12.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_909915e6-a941-44a2-a043-814e03013cb2.jpg?v=1734853673","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/varieties-of-disturbance-stories-9780374281731","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}