This is The Writers 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

Sarah Bronstein read her story abject naturalism from the July 29th

2024 issue of the magazine. Bronstein is the author of two novels, The Sweet Relief of Missing Children and Bad Animals, which was published earlier this year.

She's a recipient of the National Book Foundation's 535 Award.

Now here's Sarah Bronstein.

Object naturalism.

The baby's father left before the cesarian incision had fully healed, when it was still a raised

red line tender to the touch, glistening with vitamin E oil. Perfity!

This from a man who'd once said he'd die without her, who'd written her piles of

letters after she'd rejected him back in graduate school, though graduate school

makes it sound more serious than it was.

They'd gone to a university to become fiction writers.

The degree took two years. During this time Tony slept with

several of her peers but not with the man who eventually became her child's

father. He left letters in her mailbox about how much this pained him.

But he was too odd, she thought, terribly intense, with a work ethic that made her ashamed of her own,

and a burrowing gaze that at once flattered and repelled.

He was skinny and had a ponytail.

He carried a briefcase.

He didn't die for lack of her, despite what his letters warned.

...