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Deborah Levy

デボラ・レビー

Deborah Levy

Profile

Gender
Female
Born
1959-08-06 (Johannesburg, South Africa)
Nationality
British
Languages
English
Residence History
Wembley (London) → Petts Wood (London suburb)

Career

Occupations
novelist, playwright, poet
Active Years
1981-
Affiliations
Trinity College, Cambridge (Fellow Commoner), Royal College of Art (AHRB Fellow), Falmouth University (visiting professor), Columbia University (Institute for Ideas and Imagination fellow)
Influenced By
Derek Jarman, Zofia Kalinska (theatre director)

Education

St Saviour's and St Olave's School
Country: United Kingdom
One of her secondary schools
Hampstead School
Country: United Kingdom
One of her secondary schools
Dartington College of Arts
Period: 1978–1981
Year of Graduation: 1981
Country: United Kingdom
Trained in theatre and arts

Awards

Lannan Literary Fellowship
2001
Organization: Lannan Foundation
Result: 受賞
Specsavers National Book Awards (UK Author of the Year shortlist)
2012
Work: Swimming Home
Organization: Specsavers National Book Awards
Result: 候補(ショートリスト)
Man Booker Prize
2012
Work: Swimming Home
Organization: The Booker Prizes
Result: ショートリスト
BBC International Short Story Award
2012
Work: Black Vodka (short story collection)
Organization: BBC
Result: ショートリスト
Jewish Quarterly Wingate Prize
2013
Work: Swimming Home
Organization: Jewish Quarterly
Result: ショートリスト
Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award
2013
Work: Black Vodka
Organization: Frank O'Connor Award
Result: ショートリスト
Man Booker Prize
2016
Work: Hot Milk
Organization: The Booker Prizes
Result: ショートリスト
Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature
2017
Organization: Royal Society of Literature
Result: フェロー任命
Booker Prize (longlist)
2019
Work: The Man Who Saw Everything
Organization: The Booker Prizes
Result: ロングリスト
Prix Femina étranger
2020
Work: Things I Don't Want to Know / The Cost of Living (French translation)
Organization: Prix Femina
Result: 受賞

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Swimming Home

2011 Novel (literary fiction)

Set during a family holiday in Ibiza, an unexpected visitor and their entourage unsettle the household; a concise, poignant exploration of loss, solitude and fragile relationships.

losssolitudefragility of relationships
Adaptations
  • [film] Swimming Home (film) / Justin Anderson (2024)

Hot Milk

2016 Novel (literary fiction)

An intimate novel about the relationship between a mother and daughter, delicately examining body, emotion, dependence and autonomy; notable for unstable narration and shifting perspectives.

mother-daughter relationshipbodily experiencedependence and autonomy
Adaptations
  • [film] Hot Milk (film) / Rebecca Lenkiewicz (2025)

Black Vodka

2013 Short story collection

A collection of philosophically and sensually charged short stories that investigate isolation, otherness and aesthetics of 'elsewhereness'.

othernessruptures of existencesensory description

Things I Don't Want to Know

2014 Autobiography / memoir

A memoir written in response to George Orwell's 'Why I Write', examining life, work and the meaning of writing.

memoirwriterly reflectionmemory

Bibliography

  • Beautiful Mutants (1989)
  • Swallowing Geography (1993)
  • The Unloved (1994)
  • Billy & Girl (1999)
  • Swimming Home (2011)
  • Black Vodka (2013)
  • Hot Milk (2016)
  • The Man Who Saw Everything (2019)
  • August Blue (2023)
  • Things I Don't Want to Know (2014)
  • The Cost of Living (2018)
  • Real Estate (2021)

Adaptations

  • Swimming Home film adaptation (dir. Justin Anderson; premiered at IFFR 2024)
  • Hot Milk film adaptation (dir. Rebecca Lenkiewicz; premiered at Berlin International Film Festival 2025)
  • Graphic novel adaptation of the short story 'Stardust Nation' (illustrator Andrzej Klimowski, 2016)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
unstable narratorsshifting perspectivestheatrical structuringconcise, coiled sentences
Recurring Motifs
home/lessnessmemory and temporal instabilityphysicalityisolation and otherness

Legacy

Regarded as a major contemporary British literary voice, Levy brings theatrical technique and philosophical reflection to her fiction and short stories. Her prize nominations, awards and international translations have given her wide readership.

Academic Societies

  • Royal Society of Literature (Fellow)

Archives

  • National library and authority records (VIAF, ISNI, etc.)

In Popular Culture

  • Swimming Home film adaptation (2024)
  • Hot Milk film adaptation (2025)

Quotes

  • "one of the most exciting voices in contemporary British fiction"
    Source: Critical reception (on Black Vodka) (2013)
  • "a writer who prefers unstable narrators and shifting perspectives"
    Source: London Review of Books (Alice Spawls) (2016)

Trivia

  • Born in Johannesburg in 1959; family moved to the UK in 1968.
  • Started as a playwright before focusing on fiction and poetry.
  • Married David Gale in 1997; later divorced; has two daughters.