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

Treisman, fiction editor at the New Yorker. The story in the magazine's November 27th

2023 issue is Beauty Contest by Yoko Agawa translated from the Japanese by

Stephen Snyder.

Pocawa was not able to read her story on the podcast, but recently on the New Yorker

fiction podcast, Madeline Tian read and discussed O'Gawa's 2004 story, The cafeteria in the

evening and a pool in the rain, and we wanted to share that

episode with you instead. Hope you enjoy it. This is the New Yorker fiction podcast from the New Yorker magazine.

I'm Deborah Treisman Fiction fiction editor at the New Yorker.

Each month we invite a writer to choose a story from the magazine's archives to read and discuss.

This month we're going to hear the cafeteria in the evening and a pool in the rain by Yoko Agawa, which was translated from the Japanese

by Stephen Snyder and published in the New Yorker in September of 2004.

In three weeks my fiance and I would be married a small ceremony with only the two of us present and then he would move here.

In the meantime it was up to me to get the house ready.

The story was chosen by Madeline Tien, whose 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 Scotia Bank Giller Prize.

Hi Maddie, welcome.

Hi Deborah.

So why did you choose a story by Yoko Aagawa to read today?

Oh, I love Yoko Oagawa's writing.

She's one of those writers.

...