This is the writer's voice, new fiction from the New Yorker. I'm Deborah

Treisman, fiction editor at the New Yorker. On this week's episode of the writer's voice

we'll hear Aisha Gull Savage

read her story, Freedom to Move

from the July 22nd, 2024 issue of the magazine.

Savage is the author of three novels,

Walking on the ceiling, White on White,

and the Anthropologists, which came out this month.

Now here's Aisigol Savage. I should go savage. Freedom to move. I was in a stumble for a few days and on my way to visit my grandfather.

He'd moved in with my father at the beginning of the pandemic because we had been worried

about him living alone in the town by the Black Sea where he'd retired.

We'd urged him to come to the city just for a short time.

It had been a wise decision.

My grandfather's health deteriorated rapidly in those months and his stay became indefinite.

He could no longer go out for long walks as he used to or even remain upright for extended periods.

My grandfather had always spent his days outdoors.

Whenever he came to Istanbul, he'd take buses and ferries all over the city, sometimes

going as far as the city's gates.

He traveled around the country with a tent.

He stayed in mountain villages and invited himself to breakfast at the homes of locals.

He loved that sort of thing, meeting strangers seeing

different lives. He often urged us his grandchildren to join him. He showed us

...