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Her stories may be literal one-liners: the entirety of "Bloomington" reads, "Now that I have been here for a little while, I can say with confidence that I have never been here before." Or they may be lengthier investigations of the havoc wreaked by the most mundane disruptions to routine: in "A Small Story About a Small Box of Chocolates," a professor receives a gift of thirty-two small chocolates and is paralyzed by the multitude of options she imagines for their consumption.

The stories may appear in the form of letters of complaint; they may be extracted from Flaubert's correspondence; or they may be inspired by the author's own dreams, or the dreams of friends.

What does not vary throughout Can't and Won't, Lydia Davis's fifth collection of stories, is the power of her finely honed prose. Davis is sharply observant; she is wry or witty or poignant. Above all, she is refreshing. Davis writes with bracing candor and sly humor about the quotidian, revealing the mysterious, the foreign, the alienating, and the pleasurable within the predictable patterns of daily life.

“Widely considered one of the most original minds in American fiction today.” — Dana Goodyear, The New Yorker

“This is what the best and most original literature can do: make us more acutely aware of life on and off the page.” — Peter Orner, The New York Times Book Review

“Can't and Won't is evidence of a writer who is in total control of her own peculiar original voice; its pleasures are unexpected and manifold.” — Kate Christensen, Elle

“A master of sequencing. Davis mixes long and short dispatches to intoxicating effect.” — Dwight Garner, The New York Times

“The most revolutionary collection of stories by an American in twenty-five years.” — John Freeman, The Boston Globe