Our Strangers

<p><b>A <i>FINANCIAL TIMES </i>BOOK OF THE YEAR</b><b>: FICTION</b><br><br><b>''A trailblazer in the world of short-form prose'' <i>New Yorker</i></b><br><br>Lydia Davis is a virtuoso at detecting the seemingly casual, inconsequential surprises of daily life and pinning them for inspection. In <i>Our Strangers</i>, 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.<br><br><i>Our Strangers</i> is a fascinating collection that confirms the genius of a writer whose every attention is transformative.</p>