Things I Don't Want to Know

Things I Don't Want to Know

Living Autobiography 1

Summary

The first in Deborah Levy's essential three-part 'Living Autobiography' on writing and womanhood.

'Unmissable. Like chancing upon an oasis, you want to drink it slowly . . . Subtle, unpredictable, surprising' Guardian
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Taking George Orwell's famous essay, 'Why I Write', as a jumping-off point, Deborah Levy offers her own indispensable reflections of the writing life. With wit, clarity and calm brilliance, she considers how the writer must stake claim to that contested territory as a young woman and shape it to her need.

Things I Don't Want to Know is a work of dazzling insight and deep psychological succour, from one of our most vital contemporary writers.

The final two instalments in Deborah Levy's 'Living Autobiography', The Cost of Living and Real Estate, are available now.
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'Superb sharpness and originality of imagination. An inspiring work of writing' Marina Warner

'An exciting writer, sharp and shocking as the knives her characters wield' Sunday Times

'A writer whose anger and confusion in the face of the world transform into poetic flights of fancy . . . which always feel marvellously right' Independent

Reviews

  • An up-to-date version of 'A Room of One's Own' . . . I suspect it will be quoted for many years to come
    Irish Examiner

About the author

Deborah Levy

Deborah Levy is the author of several novels including August Blue, Hot Milk and Swimming Home, alongside a formally innovative, critically acclaimed 'living autobiography' trilogy: Things I Don't Want to Know, The Cost of Living and Real Estate. She has been shortlisted twice each for the Goldsmiths Prize and Booker Prize and won the Prix Femina Etranger. She has also written for The Royal Shakespeare Company and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
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