Description
A propulsive, bewitching novel about home and family, the ache of unrealised dreams and the quiet tragedy of unrequited love.
Nineteen-year-old Lea is from a village that is out of time, out of jobs and out of hope. She and her friends, however, are vivid and electric with life. They yearn, they dance, they fuck, they fight. And around them, a world that isn’t quite our own vibrates with strangeness and threat.
Now Lea is here, sitting on a bench, telling a silent stranger her life story. Because yesterday, change was finally unavoidable.
A novel of rural entrapment and coming of age, Elisa Levi’s That’s All I Know bears the traces of Beckett and Lorca, rings with the echo of folktales and has a fierce, unapologetic vitality at its heart. Startlingly odd and deeply moving, it is the work of a profound and singular talent.
‘We become drawn in and hypnotised by Lea’s rhythm . . . This novel works as a fine piece of storytelling but is also rich in symbolic possibilities.’ Rónán Hession, Irish Times
‘Lyrical and alarming.’ 5*, Foreword
‘Ambitious and beguiling.’ Sunday Post
‘An utterly engaging tale of unendurable sadness and quiet desperation and of how we live with the decisions we make. Highly recommended.’ ArtsHub
‘A dazzling debut . . . Often funny, often tragic, constantly utterly berserk. Elisa Levi is truly an author to watch.’ Foyles, Top Ten Books of May
‘Reminded me of the excitement, imaginativeness, and inventiveness of the Hispanic literature I studied in college. If you enjoyed the magical realism of One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez, you will be just as invested as I was in That’s All I Know.’ Condé Nast Traveller
‘A novel capable of lethal shocks and bold transfigurations . . . Unconventional and memorable.’ Kirkus
‘A beautifully rendered narrative that combines magical realism with social commentary.’ Dazed, The 12 most anticipated novels of 2025
‘Elegant, sly, and enrapturing.’ Catherine Lacey
‘Funny and strange, quirky and heartbreaking, voice-driven and philosophical, magical and very real. As Little Lea tells her tale of family, home, and the end of the world, she casts a quiet spell over me.’ Rebekah Bergman
‘A brilliant feat of authorial control; Elisa Levi has created a devastating delight.’ Maya Binyam
‘That’s All I Know is a trapped story so bare and still the reader can feel Lea’s breath swirl as a marble does in a jar. Her desire to leave with her brain (her greatest asset), to free her older sister, to get laid, and to dance in the fresh air calls to mind those characters whose stomachs burn with life.’ Nora Lange
‘A novel that evokes the magical realism of Gabriel García Márquez.’ Última Hora
‘A text that gallops, that overflows, that has something of a river.’ El ojo crítico
‘A book about the inability to leave the place where you were born . . . It reminded me of Miguel Delibes’ The Way and Carson McCullers’ The Member of the Wedding . . . it is very beautiful.’ Miqui Otero
