Rumors from the Lost World

His first collection, Rumors from the Lost World, is fantastic, and so is the second, Alone with the Owl. Of the first, Tim O'Brien wrote, "A magical collection of stories, one of the best I've encountered in years." Walker Percy wrote, "He has an original talent, a feel for action, a sparse yet vivid style, a sharp satirical sense, a keen eye and ear for the follies of the age." Dorothy Allison wrote in the New York Times Book Review, "Alan Davis's voice transports and sings....I kept thinking that I wouldn't mind winding up as a character in one of his stories. Odds are, he'd do me justice."The blurbs on the back cover of Alone with the Owl also say it all: "Although these stories occur in many different parts of the country, they are easthetically shaped by the landscape of Louisiana, the muddy delta, and the oily bayou - the bottomland to which all things flow." Debra Marquart (The Hunger Bone) "In Alone with the Owl, I have met a glalery of characters more thoroughly and deply than I do in half a year of my ordinary existence." Josip Navakovich (Salvation and Other Disasters)You should spread the word about Alan Davis; I found almost every story wonderful. He's simultaneously lyrical and gritty, and he has one of the most distinctive styles in American or contemporary fiction. Quite simply, he's one of the best writers now working in English, and he's too little known. He deserves to be read along with Ondaatje, Rushdie, DeLillo, Atwood and the like. Kudos.