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This is the writer's voice, new fiction from The New Yorker.

I'm Deborah Treesman, fiction editor at The New Yorker.

On this episode of The Writer's Voice, we'll hear Allegra Goodman read her story, Dealbreaker,

from the January 12th, 26th 26 issue of the magazine.

Goodman is the author of 10 books of fiction, including the novel's Catterskill Falls,

which was a National Book Award finalist, Sam, and Isola, which was published last year.

The new collection of linked stories, This Is Not About Us, will come out in February.

Now here's Allegra Goodman.

Deal breaker.

Pam is seeing someone, but she's not talking about it.

Of course, her friends know, but she has not told her parents or her sister Wendy.

She would tell her father, Charles, because he doesn't pry, but then he would tell her mother,

Helen. As for Wendy, she can't keep a secret from anyone, Helen least of all. If Helen knew,

she would pester and pass judgment, so Pam is keeping John from her.

She's done being judged. Well, almost done. She's working on it.

John is not Jewish. For Helen, that's a deal breaker. But this isn't Helen's deal to break.

He is not young, but at 56, Pam is not young either. He is mostly bald. His knees are bad.

He's heavy, and he has a little twitch when he is nervous, a slight blink of his left eye.

He's shy, soft-spoken, and divorced, which in Helen's mind is a moral failing. Helen would never say it,

...