Praise for
An Amorous Discourse in the Suburbs of Hell
‘I loved this effervescent dialogue between she and he, angel and accountant, wild desire and the (ever more desirable) quotidian. It’s Deborah Levy at her wise, witty and playful best. Read it and be seduced away from (or back into) the suburbs of hell.’
Lisa Appignanesi,
author of All About Love
‘She writes like a hyper-kinetic angel.’
Sunday Times
Praise for Deborah Levy
‘Levy winds her characters up and watches them go, and they do as most humans do, which is to mess up in the face of desire … Utterly beautiful and lyrical throughout.’
Booklist
‘She is one of the few contemporary British writers comfortable on a world stage.’
New Statesman
‘Accomplished and uncanny. The strange, unpredictable journey is worth it.’
Alex Clark, Guardian
‘A major contemporary writer who never pulls her punches.’
Julia Pascal, Independent
‘Levy’s strength is her originality of thought and expression.’
Jeanette Winterson
‘Levy’s sense of dramatic form … is unerring.’
New Yorker
First published in 1990 by Jonathan Cape, UK
This edition published with revisions in 2014 by
And Other Stories
London – New York
www.andotherstories.org
Copyright © Deborah Levy 1990
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transported in any form by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher of this book.
The right of Deborah Levy to be identified as Author of An Amorous Discourse in the Suburbs of Hell has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organisations, places and events are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
ISBN 9781908276469
eBook ISBN 9781908276476
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
i will not eat tomorrow
and i did not eat today
but wotthehell i ask you
the word is toujours gai
Don Marquis,
Archy and Mehitabel
In order to show you where your desire is
it is enough to forbid it to you a little.
a little prohibition
a good deal of play
Roland Barthes,
A Lover’s Discourse
translated by Richard Howard
