Black Vodka cover art

Black Vodka

And Other Stories

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About this listen

'Kissing you is like new paint and old pain. It is like coffee and car alarms and a dim stairway and a stain and it's like smoke.' ('Placing a Call')

How does love change us? And how do we change ourselves for love - or for lack of it? Ten stories by acclaimed author Deborah Levy explore these delicate, impossible questions. In Vienna, an icy woman seduces a broken man; in London gardens, birds sing in computer start-up sounds; in ad-land, a sleek copywriter becomes a kind of shaman.

These are 21st century lives dissected with razor-sharp humour and curiosity, stories about what it means to live and love, together and alone.

Deborah Levy writes fiction, plays and poetry. Her work has been staged by the Royal Shakespeare Company, and she is the author of highly praised books including Beautiful Mutants, Swallowing Geography and Billy and Girl.

Her most recent novel, Swimming Home (2011, And Other Stories) was shortlisted for the 2012 Man Booker Prize. Black Vodka, the title story in this collection, was shortlisted for the 2012 BBC International Short Story Competition.

©2013 Deborah Levy (P)2014 Audible Studios Anthologies & Short Stories Fiction Short Stories Shamanism

Critic reviews

"There is a sexy hauteur in Deborah Levy's prose reminiscent of the voice of Marianne Faithfull. The rasping, deadpan delivery of these ten new stories emit a dreamy harshness at once jaded and invigorating." (Catherine Taylor, New Statesman)

"Here, as in her previous plays, stories and novels, her writing exhibits a rhetorical severity which has a mythic, lullaby quality, experimental and at the same time simple and beautiful." (Alex Christofi, The Literateur)

"Fabulously jolting"", ""accomplished and uncanny", "The strange, unpredictable journey is worth it."(Alex Clark, The Guardian)
All stars
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I really enjoyed these stories. I found them easy to drift into while I work on my paintings. Very well performed and interesting storyline. I have another book sitting in my shelf by Deborah levy that I’m desperate to read now.

Loved these

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I didnt understand the point of the stories, and I didn't think the narrators were right for the characters. Women portrayed by men in high pitch breathy voices, and too-young men portraying workplace managers. It just didn't work for me, I'm afraid.

Didn't love it

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I did enjoy the first two short stories/chapters but it felt like the narrator was reading a list of thoughts, not stories as it went on. didn't feel connected to the characters 🤷🏻‍♀️

oddly stiff

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Disappointed. The description of the book really sold it but unfortunately, I found all but one of the stories to be really cliche and boring with awfully dull and one dimensional characters. The different narrators were a mixed bag from awful to great. There are much better short story collections out there so don't waste your time on this.

Don't waste your time

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potentially interesting stories but dreadful voice actors who ruin it. glad it was free!

don't bother

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i’m not sure what the theme was, the stories did not really seem that connected. in a couple you had political statements, in others ephemeral relationships and cheating, in others something else. and the stories, individually, were also not great. usually it’s nice to have a collection like this with a coherent theme, not whatever did not fit in a novel as a detail, tossed in together. i did not like it.
the performance was also not ideal, there were too many different styles of speakers, with nothing tying them together. this is where a coherent theme could have helped…

did not like it

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