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 Anna. the

fiction editor at the New Yorker. On this episode of the writer's voice, we'll hear Andrea Lee read her story

The Rifles from the January 4th and 11th 2021 issue of the magazine.

Lee is the author of four books including the novel Lost Hearts in Italy

and the story collection Interesting Women. A new book, Red Island House, will be published in March.

Now here's Andrea Lee.

The Rivales The rivals. When Floristella catches sight of Pianon on the Red House veranda, the side that overlooks Madame

Rose Rakota Malala's jackfruit tree, he gives a marshal bellow. is a

cotamala's jackfruit tree. He gives a marshal bellow, charges down the garden path and

attacks his neighbor with a walking stick.

And though the two old Italian men, both well over 70, are ludicrous combatants.

Floristella, a diabetic is ponderously fat, while tall pianona is skeletal from annual bouts of malaria, so that their skirmish suggests a clash between

Falstaff and Icabad Crane, their energy and passion run high, and no one who witnesses

the incident feels inclined to laugh.

The owners of the Red House, Sena and his wife Shay, have left Madagascar and are back home in Italy at the time,

but there are plenty of witnesses to give them later a

detailed report of the fight between their resident accountant and their old friend

and next-door neighbor. There is Madame Rose, their neighbor on the opposite side, and their chief informant.

There are the gardeners and maids from the Red House, including the formidable head housekeeper Bertin Lacrand.

There are several entendroy market women heading up the beach bearing

...