Things I Don't Want to Know

Things I Don't Want to Know is a feminist response to George Orwell's 1946 essay Why Do I Write? by award-winning contemporary writer Deborah Levy. Although Levy takes Orwell's reasons for writing as her starting point, she captures a completely different style and perspective as she recounts with rare candor her childhood in apartheid South Africa, her teenage years when she emigrated to England, and her midlife crisis when she left everything behind and escaped to Spain.

Although the text is an autobiographical narrative, it becomes universal as it ponders concepts such as gender roles, motherhood, and immigration. As Levy explains how the experience of being a female writer differs from that of a male writer, she makes sure to salute pioneering feminist writers such as Simone de Beauvoir, Marguerite Duras, Sylvia Plath, and Virginia Woolf.

Things I Didn’t Want to Know is about finding your own voice, and learning to speak up.

“Things I Didn’t Want to Know is a response to George Orwell’s essay, but it’s also a contemporary interpretation of A Room of One’s Own. Like Virginia Woolf’s famous essay, it will be a text that will be frequently quoted in years to come.”

- TheIrish Examiner -

“A vivid account that shows how even the most mundane details of a writer’s life can take on power in a literary text.”

- New York Times Book Review -

(From the Promotional Bulletin)

Pulp Type : 2. Dough

Number of Pages : 104

Dimensions : 13.5 x 16

Year of First Printing : 2019

Number of Prints : 1st Edition