Hey everybody I'm Kai Rizdahl the host of Marketplace your daily download on the

economy. Money influences so much of what we do and how we live. That's why it's

essential to understand how this economy works. we that you can understand what it all means for you. Marketplace is your secret

weapon for understanding this economy. Listen, wherever you get your

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

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

we'll hear Camille Bordas read her story,

Chicago on the Sen, from the June 17th, 2024

issue of the magazine.

Bordas published two novels in France.

Her first novel in English, How to Behave in a Crowd, came out in 2017,

and a new novel, The Material, was published this month.

Now here's Camille Bordas.

Chicago on the sin. I used to tell myself stories on the job to make it feel exciting.

Spy stories, exfiltration stories, war stories. I used to come up with poignant little details that turned the repatriation cases I worked on into saving Private Ryan into Johnny got his gun.

Repatriation. There's such a ring to it, such drama.

I imagined maimed bodies in dirty tents, nurses changing brown-blooded gauze, bending over beds to tell the

wounded, the call came in, you're going home.

Yet I worked in special consular services at our embassy in Paris. The Americans I helped repatriate mostly broke legs in Pegal or crushed rental cars in Normandy.

Miracles didn't happen rental cars in Normandy.

Miracles didn't happen for them in Lored.

People don't talk about it, but those for whom miracles don't happen in Lourd tend to leave France

...