Free Black Vodka by Deborah Levy Page A

linen. Although my body is stuffed with the gauze of information and the soul has gone out of fashion, I still use plants to heal my wounds and pains. I put calendula ointments on my shins when I fall over and sip chamomile tea when I’m in shock, a flower the Egyptians dedicated to their gods. One day, when Elisa and I are long buried and have turned to dust, I hope a robot boy will find this document and correct my spelling mistakes with his silver fingers. Although he will look nothing like me, he too will be a son without a mother, his eyes open all night long.

A Note on the Author
     
    Deborah Levy writes fiction, plays, and poetry. Her
    work has been staged by the Royal Shakespeare
    Company and widely broadcast on the BBC,
    including her dramatizations of two of Freud’s
    most iconic case histories, Dora and The Wolfman .
    The author of highly praised novels including the
    Man Booker Prize–shortlisted Swimming Home ,
    Beautiful Mutants , Swallowing Geography , and Billy and
    Girl , she lives in London.

By the Same Author
     
    Fiction
    Swimming Home
    Pillow Talk in Europe and Other Places (stories)
    Billy and Girl
    The Unloved
    Swallowing Geography
    Beautiful Mutants
    Ophelia and the Great Idea
     
    Nonfiction
    Things I Don’t Want to Know: On Writing
     
    Poetry
    An Amorous Discourse in the Suburbs of Hell
     
    Plays
    Pax
    Heresies
    Clam
    Call Blue Jane
    Shiny Nylon
    The B File: An Erotic Interrogation of Five Female Personas
    Pushing the Price into Denmark
    Honey Baby Middle England
    Macbeth—False Memories

Copyright © 2014 by Deborah Levy
     
    All rights reserved. You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce, or otherwise make
    available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (including without
    limitation electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, printing, recording, or
    otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any
    unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil
    claims for damages. For information address Bloomsbury USA, 1385 Broadway,
    New York, NY 10018.
     
    Published by Bloomsbury USA, New York
     
    Bloomsbury is a trademark of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.
     
    “Vienna” and “Stardust Nation” were first published in Ambit ; “Cave Girl”
    in Here Lies (Trip Street Press, 2001); “Roma” in Vertigo magazine; “Black
    Vodka” in Road Stories (Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, 2012).
    “Shining a Light” was commissioned for an installation by the Wapping
    Project. “Placing a Call” was commissioned by Margarita Production for the
    narrative project Loose Promise , a collaboration with performer Kate
    McIntosh. “Vienna,” “Pillow Talk,” “Simon Tegala’s Heart in 13 Parts,”
    “A Better Way to Live,” and “Cave Girl” were published together in Pillow
    Talk in Europe and Other Places (Dalkey Archive Press, 2003).
     
    LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA HAS BEEN APPLIED FOR
     
    First published in Great Britain in 2013 by & Other Stories
    First U.S. edition 2014
    This electronic edition published in June 2014
     
    eISBN 978 1 62040 647 8
     
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