American author of several novels. Won the Kafka Prize in 1989 for Labrador. Has a really weird writing style that's often bewildering but also rewarding. It usually takes several chapters of the book before you know what's going on; once you get into the book, though, it's hard to get out. Davis sets up very elaborate worlds, often several in a single book. Utterly fascinating. Also has written several short stories appearing in various journals and magazines; no collections have yet been published. Davis teaches at Skidmore College, and lives in Vermont.

Works:

Labrador - 1988. Story of two sisters, one of whom follows their grandfather to Newfoundland

The Girl Who Trod on a Loaf - 1993. About an unfinished opera of the same name, based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale. Simultaneous narratives after the death of the opera's creator and her last days in upstate New York.

Hell - 1998. Weird. Kind of about Napoleon's chef, Antonin Careme. Also kind of about Edwina Moss, "a nineteenth century expert on domestic management." Despite this, the main narratives are set in a dollhouse and in a 1950's Philadelphia household.

The Walking Tour - 2000. A woman dies on a walking tour in Wales in the present; the novel is set some time is the future, narrated by the woman's daughter, trying to figure out what might have happened. More coherent, perhaps, than her earlier novels, but full of small mysterious details.

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