Lydia Millet

The word atavism, coined by a botanist and popularized by a criminologist, refers to the resurfacing of a primitive evolutionary trait or urge in a modern being. This inventive collection from Lydia Millet offers overlapping tales of urges ranging from rage to jealousy to yearning--a fluent triumph of storytelling, rich in ideas and emotions both petty and grand. The titular atavists include an underachieving, bewildered young bartender; a middle-aged mother convinced her gentle son-in-law is fixated on geriatric porn; a bodybuilder with an incel's fantasy life; an arrogant academic accused of plagiarism; and an empty-nester dad determined to host refugees in a tiny house in his backyard. As they pick away at the splitting seams in American culture, Millet's characters shimmer with the sense of powerlessness we share in an era of mass overwhelm. A beautician in a waxing salon faces a sudden resurgence of grief in the midst of a bikini Brazilian; a couple sets up a camera to find out who's been slipping homophobic letters into their mailbox; a jilted urban planner stalks a man she met on a dating app. In its rich warp and weft of humiliations and human error, Atavists returns to the trenchant, playful social commentary that made A Children's Bible a runaway hit. In these stories sharp observations of middle-class mores and sanctimony give way to moments of raw exposure and longing: Atavists performs an uncanny fictional magic, full of revelation but also hilarious, unpretentious, and warm.

Across more than a dozen acclaimed works of fiction, readers have become intimate with Lydia Millet’s distinctive voice and sly wit. We Loved It All, her first nonfiction book, combines the precision of fact with the power of narrative to evoke our enmeshment with the more-than-human world. Emerging from Millet’s quarter century of wildlife and climate advocacy, We Loved It All marries scenes from her life with moments of nearness to “the others”— the animals and plants with whom we share the earth. Accounts of fears and failures, jobs and friendships, childhood and motherhood are interspersed with exquisite accounts of non-humans and arresting meditations on the power of story to shape the future. Seeking to understand why we immerse ourselves in the domestic and immediate, turning away from more sweeping views, she examines how grand cultural myths can deny our longing for the company of nature and deprive us of its charisma and inspiration. In a thrilling distillation of experience and emotion, she evinces the familiar sense of feeling both well-meaning and powerless—a creature subject to forces that are baffling in their immensity. The fear and grief of extinction and climate change, Millet suggests, are forms of love that might be turned to resistance. We Loved It All shimmers with curiosity and laconic humour yet addresses with reverence the most urgent crises of our day. An incantatory, bewitching devotional to the vast and precious bestiary of the earth, it asks that we extend to other living beings the protection they deserve—the simple grace of continued existence.

From Lydia Millet—“the American writer with the funniest, wisest grasp on how we fool ourselves” (Chicago Tribune)—comes an inventive new collection of short fiction. Atavists follows a group of families, couples and loners in their collisions, confessions and conflicts in a post-pandemic America of artificially lush lawns, beauty salons, tech-bro mansions, assisted-living facilities, big-box stores, gastropubs, college campuses and medieval role-playing festivals. The various “-ists” who people these linked stories—from futurists to insurrectionists to cosmetologists—include a professor who’s morbidly fixated on an old friend’s Instagram account; a woman convinced that her bright young son-in-law is watching geriatric porn; a bodybuilder who lives an incel’s fantasy life; a couple who surveil the neighbours after finding obscene notes in their mailbox; a pretentious academic accused of plagiarism; and a suburban ex-marathoner father obsessed with hosting refugees in a tiny house in his garden.

Transported to the 21st century, Oppenheimer, Leo Szilard, and Enrico Fermi grapple with the legacy of the atom bomb in this "shattering and beautiful" time travel novel (Entertainment Weekly). Oh Pure and Radiant Heart plucks the three scientists who were key to the invention of the atom bomb--J. Robert Oppenheimer, Leo Szilard, and Enrico Fermi--as they watch history's first mushroom cloud rise over the desert on July 16th, 1945 . . . and places them down in modern-day Santa Fe. One by one, the scientists are spotted by a shy librarian who becomes convinced of their authenticity. Entranced, bewildered, overwhelmed by their significance as historical markers on the one hand, and their peculiar personalities on the other, she, to the dismay of her husband, devotes herself to them. Soon the scientists acquire a sugar daddy--a young pothead millionaire from Tokyo who bankrolls them. Heroes to some, lunatics or con artists to others, the scientists finally become messianic religious figureheads to fanatics, who believe Oppenheimer to be the Second Coming. As the ever-growing convoy traverses the country in a fleet of RV's on a pilgrimage to the UN, the scientists wrestle with the legacy of their invention and their growing celebrity, while Ann and her husband struggle with the strain on their marriage, a personal journey married to a history of thermonuclear weapons. "Possesses the nervy irreverence of Kurt Vonnegut and Joseph Heller . . . Can only be described as, well, genius." --Vanity Fair

A young Los Angeles real estate developer consumed by power and political ambitions finds his orderly, upwardly mobile life thrown into chaos by the sudden appearance of his nutty mother, who's been deserted by T.'s now out-of-the-closet father After his mother's suicide attempt and two other deaths, T. finds himself increasingly estranged from his latest project: a retirement community in the middle of the California desert. As he juggles family, business, and social responsibilities, T. begins to nurture a curious obsession with vanishing species. Soon he's living a double life, building sprawling subdivisions by day and breaking into zoos at night to be near the animals. A series of calamities forces T. to a tropical island, where he takes a Conrad-esque journey up a river into the remote jungle. Millet's devastating wit, psychological acuity, and remarkable empathy for flawed humankind contend with her vision of a world slowly murdering itself.

Acclaimed novelist Lydia Millet's first work of non-fiction, We Loved It All, is a genre-defying tour de force that makes an impassioned argument for people to see their emotional and spiritual lives as infinitely dependent on the lives of non-human beings. Drawing on a quarter-century of experience as an advocate for endangered species at the Center for Biological Diversity, Millet offers intimate portraits of what she calls "the others"—the extraordinary animals with whom we still share the world, along with those already lost. Humans, too, fill this book, as Millet touches on the lives of her world-travelling parents, fascinating partners and friends and colourful relatives, from diplomats to nut farmers—all figure in the complex tapestry each of us weaves with the surrounding world. Written in the tradition of Annie Dillard or Robert Macfarlane, We Loved It All is an incantatory work that will appeal to anyone concerned about the future of life on earth—including our own.

Over twelve novels and two collections Lydia Millet has emerged as a major American novelist. Hailed as "a writer without limits" (Karen Russell) and "a stone-cold genius" (Jenny Offill), Millet makes fiction that vividly evokes the ties between people and other animals and the crisis of extinction. Her exquisite new novel is the story of a man named Gil who walks from New York to Arizona to recover from a failed love. After he arrives, new neighbours move into the glass-walled house next door and his life begins to mesh with theirs. In this warmly textured, drily funny and philosophical account of Gil’s unexpected devotion to the family, Millet explores the uncanny territory where the self ends and community begins—what one person can do in a world beset by emergencies. Dinosaurs is both sharp-edged and tender, an emotionally moving, intellectually resonant novel that asks: In the shadow of existential threat, where does hope live?

Kaksitoista lasta vanhempineen viettää kesälomaa syrjäisessä, ylellisessä kartanossa järven rannalla. Aikuisten lomapäivät menevät nautintojen parissa: ruokaa, alkoholia ja pilveä kuluu. Pikkuvanhat lapset elävät omassa kirkkaassa maailmassaan, aikuisten unohtamina. Aikuisten laiskaa lomatunnelmaa eivät riko edes tiedot vääjäämättä lähestyvästä hirmumyrskystä. Lopulta lapset päättävät varhaisteini-ikäisen Even johdolla paeta tulvaa ja katastrofia ilman aikuisia. Nopeasti kiihtyvät tapahtumat alkavat hämmästyttävästi muistuttaa Even pikkuveljen Jackin löytämän Lasten raamatun tapahtumia. Lasten raamattu on unohdettujen lasten kollektiivisesta näkökulmasta kerrottu kuvaus sukupolvien välisestä kuilusta ja samalla jylhä allegoria ilmastokriisistä ja luontokadosta. Raamatullisia myyttejä uudelleenkirjoittava teos ravistelee, muttei jätä kokonaan toivottomaksi. Viisas romaani kysyy: jos menetämme uskomme, voimmeko pelastua?

Over twelve novels and two collections Lydia Millet has emerged as a major American novelist, writing vividly about the ties between people and other animals and the crisis of extinction. Her exquisite new novel, the first since A Children’s Bible (ISBN 978 0 393 86738 1) (“a blistering little classic”—Ron Charles, Washington Post), tells the story of an Arizona man’s relationship with the family next door, whose house has one wall made entirely out of glass. The story delivers attraction and love, friendship and grief. But Millet also evokes the uncanny. Through close observation of human and animal life in the desert, she captures the daunting scale of human society without losing sight of the real difference one person can make in the world. Written with humour and benevolence, Dinosaurs asks big questions. Can a person be good? Can a man be good? Compellingly told, emotionally moving, intellectually rich, Dinosaurs may be Millet’s finest novel yet.

Pulitzer Prize finalist Lydia Millet’s sublime new novel—her first since the National Book Award–longlisted Sweet Lamb of Heaven— follows a group of eerily mature children on a forced vacation with their parents at a lakeside mansion. Contemptuous of their elders, who pass their days in a hedonistic stupor, the children are driven out into a chaotic landscape after a great storm descends. The story’s narrator, Eve, devotes herself to the safety of her beloved little brother as events around them begin to mimic scenes from his cherished picture Bible. Millet, praised as “unnervingly talented” (San Francisco Chronicle), has produced a heartbreaking story of the legacy of climate change denial. Her parable of the coming generational divide offers a lucid vision of what awaits us on the other side of Revelation.

Pulitzer Prize finalist Lydia Millet’s sublime new novel—her first since the National Book Award–longlisted Sweet Lamb of Heaven— follows a group of eerily mature children on a forced vacation with their parents at a lakeside mansion. Contemptuous of their elders, who pass their days in a hedonistic stupor, the children are driven out into a chaotic landscape after a great storm descends. The story’s narrator, Eve, devotes herself to the safety of her beloved little brother as events around them begin to mimic scenes from his cherished picture Bible. Millet, praised as “unnervingly talented” (San Francisco Chronicle), has produced a heartbreaking story of the legacy of climate change denial. Her parable of the coming generational divide offers a lucid vision of what awaits us on the other side of Revelation.

En ask med fyra noveller som fått titeln Min fyrbenta vän. Novellerna är skrivna av Virginia Woolf, Doris Lessing, Jeanette Winterson och Lydia Millet. Över­sättning av Andreas Vesterlund. Vi har samlat fyra noveller om hundar, tryckt dem i var sin liten bok och lagt dem i en behändig ask. Den moderna litteraturens drottning Virginia Woolf är främst känd för romanerna Mrs Dalloway och Mot fyren samt essäboken Ett eget rum. Hon tillhörde det litterära kotteriet Bloomsburygruppen och startade tillsammans med sin man Leonard Woolf bokförlaget Hogarth Press. Hon var även en varm hundvän och skrev emellanåt om sina hundar, bland annat denna novell om en riktig strykarhund som en dag struttade in i hennes liv. Novellen har titeln ”Byrackan”. Doris Lessing växte upp i Zimbabwe där hennes romandebut Gräset sjunger (som hon skrev sedan hon flyttat till London) utspelar sig. Till hennes många viktiga verk hör den delvis självbiografiska feministiska romanen Den femte sanningen. Hon författade även science fiction, t ex fem romaner med samlingstiteln Canopus in Argos. År 2007 tilldelades hon Nobelpriset i litteratur. I vår novell – ”Berättelsen om två hundar” – minns hon sin barndoms hundar i en fullkomligt hisnande berättelse. Jeanette Winterson fick sitt internationella genombrott redan med debutromanen Det finns annan frukt än apelsiner. Boken är delvis självbiografisk, i övrigt fabulerad. Mer självbiografisk är hennes roman Varför vara lycklig när man kan vara normal? Nämnas bör också Vintergatan går genom magen, en febrig kärleksroman med tre deltagare som samtliga är fanatiska forskare i kärnfysik. Winterson är kattmänniska. Hennes novell – med titeln ”24-timmarshunden” – handlar om ett tappert försök under ett oförglömligt dygn att också bli hundägare. Lydia Millet är en prisbelönt kanadensisk-amerikansk författare som debuterade med romanen Omnivores och sedan dess har skrivit ett dussin romaner samt novellsamlingen Love in Infant Monkeys. När hon nominerades till Pulitzerpriset uttryckte sig en kritiker så här: ”Millets berättarkonst rör sig över hela människans känsloliv, ända ut till gränsen”. Denna novell – med titeln ”Sir Henry” – handlar om en hundrastare i New York, som går helt upp i sitt värv och får en nästan språklig kontakt med hundarna han rastar. Min fyrbenta vän. Ask med fyra hundnoveller författade av Virginia Woolf, Doris Lessing, Jeanette Winterson och Lydia Millet. ISBN 978 91 7742 515 1. Högkvalitetspapper, sydda ark, mjuka pärmar. Fyra små böcker i en ask, mjuka pärmar, 24, 48, 24 och 24 sidor. Översättning av Andreas Vesterlund.

This wonderfully original collection proves once again that Pulitzer Prize finalist Lydia Millet is "the American writer with the funniest, wisest grasp on how we fool ourselves" (Chicago Tribune). In Fight No More, Nina, a lonely real-estate broker estranged from her only relative, is at the center of a web of stories connecting a community through the houses they inhabit. With crackling satire and surprising tenderness, Millet introduces an indelible cast of untidy teens, beastly men, and strong-minded women whose stories begin to outline the fate of one particular family being torn apart by forces they recognize but cannot control. Millet's intellect and beautiful prose deliver profound insight into human behavior, from the ordinary to the bizarre, and draws startling contrasts between house and home.

In a claustrophobic, surreal California house, teenager Estee Kraft lives with her domineering father, whose obsession with insect taxonomy bleeds into sadism. As his schemes multiply, Estee's bedridden mother, entranced by the glow of the shopping channel, remains oblivious to the escalating chaos. Estee manages to escape her childhood home only to find new horrors awaiting her in marriage and motherhood. In a climactic twist, her traumas take form in flesh and blood-a legacy of the voracious male appetites that have haunted her life. With acerbic wit, philosophical depth, and enthralling lyricism, Omnivores cuts to the core of America's hypocrisies and anxieties, and introduced Lydia Millet as one of the wildest satirists of our time.

In her first story collection since Love in Infant Monkeys, which became a Pulitzer Prize finalist, Lydia Millet explores what it means to be home. Nina, a lonely real-estate broker estranged from her only relative, is at the center of a web of stories connecting fractured communities and families. She moves through the houses of L. A.'s wealthy elite and finds men and women both crass and tender, vicious and desperate. With wit and intellect, Millet offers profound insight into human behavior from the ordinary to the bizarre: strong-minded girls are beset by the helpless, myopic executives are tormented by their employees, and beastly men do beastly things. Fresh off the critical triumph of Sweet Lamb of Heaven (longlisted for the National Book Award), Millet is pioneering a new kind of satire--compassionate toward its victims and hilariously brutal in its depiction of modern American life.

Lydia Millet's previous work has been shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Likewise greeted with rapturous praise, Sweet Lamb of Heaven is a first-person account of a young mother, Anna, fleeing her cold and unfaithful husband, a businessman who's just launched his first campaign for political office. When Ned chases Anna and their six-year-old daughter from Alaska to Maine, the two go into hiding in a run-down motel on the coast. But the longer they stay, the less the guests in the dingy motel look like typical tourists--and the less Ned resembles a typical candidate. As his pursuit of Anna and their child moves from threatening to criminal, Ned begins to alter his wife's world in ways she never could have imagined. A double-edged and satisfying story with a strong female protagonist, a thrilling plot, and a creeping sense of the apocalyptic, Sweet Lamb of Heaven builds to a shattering ending with profound implications for its characters--and for all of us.

Praise for the Dissenters Series: "Millet's prose is lyrically evocative ('the rhythmic scoop and splash of their paddles'). A lush and intelligent opener for a topical eco-fantasy series."--Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "A thoughtful and thought-provoking beginning to a new fantasy series. The Cape Cod woods, wildlife, and beaches are depicted with loving detail, and the dark forces arrayed against the young protagonists are at once tantalizingly mystifying and alarmingly timely."--Patricia McKillip "Readers will want to leave the lights on well after finishing this book as the detail depicted will create similarities in your mind to Clive Barker's Abarat books. Readers will likely want Cara on their team as they jump, like Alice down the rabbit hole, through the guide book that turns into a window through another world."--VOYA How well do you actually know your family? In the third and final installment in the thrilling Dissenters series, Cara Sykes and her family are hoping to enjoy a normal Cape Cod summer. But there are strong and surprising forces lined up against them, there will be unexpected revelations, and the highest price will have to be paid. Lydia Millet is the author of many novels for adult readers, including PEN-USA Award--winner My Happy Life. She has taught at Columbia University and the University of Arizona and now works as a writer and editor at an endangered-species protection group called the Center for Biological Diversity.

Lydia Millet's chilling new novel is the first-person account of a young mother, Anna, escaping her cold and unfaithful husband, a businessman who's just launched his first campaign for political office. When Ned chases Anna and their six-year-old daughter from Alaska to Maine, the two go into hiding in a run-down motel on the coast. But the longer they stay, the less the guests in the dingy motel look like typical tourists--and the less Ned resembles a typical candidate. As his pursuit of Anna and their child moves from threatening to criminal, Ned begins to alter his wife's world in ways she never could have imagined. A double-edged and satisfying story with a strong female protagonist, a thrilling plot, and a creeping sense of the apocalyptic, Sweet Lamb of Heaven builds to a shattering ending with profound implications for its characters--and for all of us.

July 16, 1945. The world's first atomic mushroom cloud rises above New Mexico desert. At the moment of detonation, the men responsible for the bomb, the physicists Robert Oppenheimer, Enrico Fermi and Leo Szilard, suddenly find themselves thrown forward in time to the year 2003. As they adjust to life in the 'future', Ann, a librarian, and her doting husband, Ben, befriend them. How the charismatic, time-travelling scientists affect both modern America and the marriage of these two ordinary people, is the subject of Lydia Millet's heroically mischievous tragicomedy. Oh Pure and Radiant Heart was shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award.