The New Yorker: Fiction

Madeleine Thien joins Deborah Treisman to read and discuss “The Cafeteria in the Evening and a Pool in the Rain,” by Yoko Ogawa, translated from the Japanese by Stephen Snyder, which was published in The New Yorker in 2004. Thien’s books include the novels “Dogs at the Perimeter” and “Do Not Say We Have Nothing,” which won the Governor General’s Literary Award and the Scotiabank Giller Prize. 

Elif Batuman joins Deborah Treisman to read and discuss “Truth and Fiction,” by Sylvia Townsend Warner, which was published in The New Yorker in 1961. Batuman is the author of one book of nonfiction, “The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them,” and two novels, “The Idiot” and “Either/Or,” which was published earlier this year. She has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 2010.

André Alexis joins Deborah Treisman to read and discuss “Waiting for Death in a Hotel,” by Italo Calvino, translated, from the Italian, by Martin McLaughlin, which was published in The New Yorker in 2006. Alexis’s novels include “Childhood,” “Days by Moonlight,” and “Fifteen Dogs,” which won the Scotiabank Giller Prize in 2015.

2022 © Italo Calvino, performed with permission of The Wylie Agency LLC.

Akhil Sharma joins Deborah Treisman to read and discuss “Zombie,” by Joyce Carol Oates, which was published in The New Yorker in 1994. Sharma is the author of the novels “Family Life” and “An Obedient Father,” which will be reissued in a revised version this month.

Rachel Kushner joins Deborah Treisman to read and discuss “Come Into the Drawing Room, Doris,” by Edna O’Brien, which was published in The New Yorker in 1962. Kushner is the author of three novels and most recently the essay collection “The Hard Crowd,” which was published last year.

Camille Bordas joins Deborah Treisman to read and discuss “A Father-to-Be,” by Saul Bellow, which was published in The New Yorker in 1955. Bordas’s novel “How to Behave in a Crowd,” was published in 2017

Sherman Alexie joins Deborah Treisman to read and discuss “Where I’m Calling From,” by Raymond Carver, which was published in The New Yorker in 1982. Alexie is the author of nineteen books of fiction and poetry, including “Blasphemy: New and Selected Stories” and the novel “Flight.”

Gish Jen joins Deborah Treisman to read and discuss “Friends,” by Grace Paley, which was published in The New Yorker in 1979. Jen is the author of nine books, including the novel “The Resisters” and the story collection “Thank you, Mr. Nixon,” which was published in February.

Alejandro Zambra joins Deborah Treisman to read and discuss “Loneliness,” by Bruno Schulz, translated from the Polish by Celina Wieniewska, which was published in The New Yorker in 1977. Zambra is a Chilean poet, novelist, and story writer whose most recent novel, “Chilean Poet,” will be published in English this month.

Kevin Barry joins Deborah Treisman to read and discuss “A Family Man,” by V. S. Pritchett, which was published in The New Yorker in 1977. Barry is a winner of the International Dublin Literary Award and the author of six books of fiction, most recently the story collection “That Old Country Music,” which came out in 2020.