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

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

On this episode of The Writer's Voice, we'll hear Andrea Lee read her story, The Rivals,

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 Rivals When Flores Stella catches sight of Pianon on the Red House veranda, the side that overlooks

Madame Rose Rakota Malala's jackfruit tree, he gives a martial 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

pianon is skeletal from annual bouts of malaria, so that their

skirmish suggests a clash between Falstaff and Iqabad Crane.

Their energy and passion run high, and no one who witnesses the incident feels inclined

to laugh.

The owners of the Red House, Senna and his wife Shea, have left Madagascar and are back

home in Italy at the time. 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

Bertine La Grande.

...