Deborah Treisman

This is the New Yorker Fiction Podcast from The New Yorker magazine.

I'm Deborah Treisman, 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 Fugitive by Lyudmila Ulitskaya, which was translated from the Russian by Bela Ishaevich and appeared in The New Yorker in May of 2014.

The story was chosen by Han Ong, who is the author of numerous plays and the novels Fixer Chow and The Disinherited.

Hi, Han.

So I think you somewhat surprised yourself by choosing to read a story by Lyudmila Uletskaya today.

Why was that?

What is it that is at the heart of your love for her?

Yeah.

I mean, Lutz Geyer had started off as a geneticist and then lost that job due to an act of so-called sedition.

Right.

She was translating an unpublishable novel and didn't want to type it all herself.

Right.

Right.

This particular story does focus around a dissident artist.

When you first read it, what was your immediate reaction to it?

Well, I think we actually now have to let listeners get to the bath scene, which comes fairly late in the story.

So we'll talk some more after the reading.

And now here's Han Ong reading The Fugitive by Lyudmila Ulytskaya, translated from the Russian by Bela Shaevich.