‘In one short and sly book after another, [Levy] writes about characters navigating swerves of history and sexuality, and the social and personal rootlessness that accompanies both’ Atlantic
Who was Gertrude Stein?
Avant-garde American poet and art collector who made her home in Paris, godmother of modernism, queer icon, friend to Picasso and Hemingway, self-declared genius ― a writer who has baffled readers and critics for a century.
And why does she matter?
The narrator of Deborah Levy’s latest, dazzling fiction has gone to Paris to find out. There she meets Eva with the blinding gaze, an artist in a long-distance marriage, and Fanny, a sexually adventurous financier; together they cook, walk, read and argue late into the nights.
As Paris sweeps her along in its ceaseless flow, she thinks – about what we have to lose to become modern, navigating anxiety, living with uncertainty, angry fathers, making a new life in another country, art and language – how all these things looked to Gertrude Stein in the early days of the twentieth century, and how they look to her and her friends in the early twenty-first.
This is a book about how we put ourselves together― an exhilarating, witty, cosmopolitan meditation on the pleasures and challenges of friendship, desire and living with other people. But it is also crashes through genre to create an inspired portrait of Stein herself: a writer who experimented fearlessly with a new way of living and who wrestled herself free from the nineteenth century to invent a brand-new way of looking at the world.
International availability - Europe and the United States.
We have resumed some European and US shipping in line with new EU GPSR regulations and recent changes to US tariffs. Please see below for details on Customs and Tariffs. British Library Publications, including our subscriptions, are now available for order for customers across Europe and the United States.
We will continue rolling out our most popular products to these regions in stages. If you are browsing from Europe or the US, you can now see the products that are available for you to order.
We’re working hard to expand the offering, so the selection you see online will continue to grow as products are cleared for shipping.
Print on Demand Art Prints, Clothing, and accessories are shipped separately from the manufacturer, and are not included in any Shipping rates below.
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Our deliveries are now carbon neutral.
| Order Value | Shipping Rates | Timescale | |
| UK Standard* | Under £5 | £3.50 | 3 - 5 working days |
| UK Standard* | £5 or Over | £5 | 3 - 5 working days |
Please allow 7 working days from the time you place your order to contact us about undelivered orders.
*does not include custom prints or custom clothing.
Local pick up
Local pick up is free and allows you to buy online and collect your items from our shop in St. Pancras (London) or from Reception in Boston Spa.
*not available for custom prints or custom clothing/accessories.
London
Orders placed before 3pm will be ready to collect from noon the following day (including weekends). Please ensure you check our opening times before coming to collect.
Boston Spa
Orders placed before 3pm will be ready to collect between 2 - 4 working days, though this is usually quicker.
EU and Europe orders
Due to the new EU Regulation 2023/988 (GPSR), not all of our products will be available for you to order yet, we are working on rolling out a wider product range.
| Order value | Under £25 | £25 - £49.99 | £50 - £99.99 | £100 and Over | Timescale |
| Airmail | £ 15 | £ 25 | £ 36 | £ 45 | Usually 2 - 4 weeks |
Rest of the World orders
| Order value | Under £25 | £25 - £49.99 | £50 - £99.99 | £100 and Over | Timescale |
| Airmail | £ 20 | £ 30 | £ 40 | £ 50 | Usually 2 - 4 weeks |
International orders are shipped on a Delivered at Place (DAP) basis.
Import duties and taxes such as Customs and Tariffs are payable by the customer upon delivery. These fees are the responsibility of the recipient and are not included in the purchase price or shipping cost. The British Library is not liable for these charges.
Orders returned due to non-payment of duties will be refunded for the product cost only, less any shipping fees incurred.
For more detailed information click here