Her stories are sometimes literal one-liners or long, patient observations of cows over the course of a winter from the kitchen window of a country house. However, her tales can also be dreams, complaint letters to frozen pea producers or authors of bookstore promotional brochures, or stories condensed from Flaubert's letters. Lydia Davis writes in all cases with great precision, wit, and intelligence, and with a keen eye for the unpleasantnesses of daily life. As she takes nothing for granted, she constantly transcends the boundaries of literary conventions, genres, and practices, making her work a treasure trove of surprising discoveries. She neither shies away from intellectual pleasure nor from the closeness of intimacy, whether it involves an ironic enumeration of reading preferences or something else.