A short life of the author
Deborah Levy (b. 1959) was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, and moved to England as a child. She studied theatre at Dartington College of Arts.
Life and Career
Levy published several novels and plays before Swimming Home (2012) — about a group of people on holiday in a villa in the south of France whose equilibrium is disrupted by the arrival of a young woman — was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. The novel’s surface calm conceals depths of emotional violence. Hot Milk (2016) — set in Almería, Spain — was also Booker-shortlisted.
Her ‘living autobiography’ trilogy — Things I Don’t Want to Know, The Cost of Living, and Real Estate — is a formally original meditation on what it means to be a woman and a writer in the twenty-first century.
Major Works and Themes
Levy writes about desire, freedom, gender, and the structures — domestic, social, psychological — that constrain women’s lives. Her prose is compressed, allusive, and shot through with a European sensibility.
Key Works
- Swimming Home (2012) — Booker shortlist
- Hot Milk (2016) — Booker shortlist
- The Cost of Living (2018)
Collecting Levy
Swimming Home (2012, And Other Stories) — the small-press first edition — is scarce: $30–$100. Levy signs at literary events.