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

I'm Debra Treesman, 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 proxy marriage by Miley Maloy,

which was published in the New Yorker in May of 2012.

Other soldiers heard about the proxy law,

and William and Brydie did three more weddings on a single day in the spring,

and three in the summer after they graduated.

It got easier for William as the ceremony became familiar.

His heart didn't trip over itself so much when he said, I do.

The story was chosen by Anne Patchet, who's the author of eight novels,

including Commonwealth and the Dutch House,

which was a finalist for last year's Pulitzer Prize.

Hi Anne. Hi Debra. Welcome.

So you and Miley Maloy are friends.

It's true. It's a fix.

And I've heard that you were in a way the trigger for this story, the proxy marriage.

Can you tell me about that?

In a very small way, Miley and I were in Australia together.

We were on book tour separately,

but when you fly to Australia with someone and you're there a couple of weeks

and then fly back, you have a lot of time to talk.

...