New Yorker: Fiction

Paul Theroux Reads Elizabeth Taylor

Paul Theroux reads "The Letter Writers," by Elizabeth Taylor, which ...

Paul Theroux reads "The Letter Writers," by Elizabeth Taylor, which appeared in The New Yorker in 1958.

Jonathan Safran Foer reads Amos Oz

On this month's fiction podcast, Jonathan Safran Foer reads Amos ...

On this month's fiction podcast, Jonathan Safran Foer reads Amos Oz's "The King of Norway," which first appeared in The New Yorker in 2011.

Louise Erdrich reads Joyce Carol Oates

On this month's fiction podcast, Louise Erdrich reads "Mastiff," by ...

On this month's fiction podcast, Louise Erdrich reads "Mastiff," by Joyce Carol Oates, which appeared in the magazine earlier this year. (Erdrich's latest book, "The Round House," won the National Book Award in 2012.)

Jonathan Lethem reads V. S. Pritchett

On this month's fiction podcast, Jonathan Lethem reads "The Rescue," ...

On this month's fiction podcast, Jonathan Lethem reads "The Rescue," by V. S. Pritchett, which was first published in The New Yorker in 1973 and can be found in Pritchett's "Complete Collected Stories." (Lethem's most recent fiction in the magazine, "The Gray Goose," was excerpted from his new novel, "Dissident Gardens.") In his discussion with The New Yorker's fiction editor, Deborah Treisman, Lethem says that Pritchett is a "total sorcerer," a writer who lets readers into a world that seems stable and then "pulls the rug out from under" them, changing where the story is going and what they think of the characters. "The Rescue," which is narrated by a sixteen-year-old girl whose mother brings home an awkward boy named Ellis to help her plan the town's annual pageant, is, according to Lethem, a perfect model for the way Pritchett tends to "overturn expectations."

Rick Bass reads Thomas McGuane

Rick Bass reads "Ice," by Thomas McGuane.

Donald Antrim reads Denis Johnson

Donald Antrim reads "Work," by Denis Johnson.

Gary Shteyngart reads Lorrie Moore

Gary Shteyngart reads "Paper Losses," by Lorrie Moore.

Robert Coover reads Italo Calvino

Robert Coover reads "The Daughters of the Moon," by Italo ...

Robert Coover reads "The Daughters of the Moon," by Italo Calvino.

Richard Ford reads Harold Brodkey

Richard Ford reads "The State of Grace," by Harold Brodkey.

Margaret Atwood reads Mavis Gallant.

Margaret Atwood reads "Voices Lost in Snow," by Mavis Gallant.