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 Ben Lerner read his story, Ross Perot and China,

from the May 27th, 2019 issue of the magazine.

Lerner is the author of the novels Leaving the Atocha Station and 1004, as well as three books of poetry.

His third novel, The Topeka School, from which this story was adapted, will be published in October.

Now here's Ben Lerner.

Ross Perot in China.

They were drifting on her stepfather's boat in the middle of an otherwise empty man-made lake

encircled by large-tracked houses.

It was early autumn, and they were drinking southern comfort from the bottle.

Adam was in the front of the boat watching a changeable blue light across the water that was probably a television seen through a window or a glass door. He heard the scrape of her lighter, then saw smoke float over him, unravel. For a long time, he had been speaking.

When he turned to see what effect his speech had had, she was gone, jeans and sweater

in a little pile with the pipe and lighter.

He said her name, suddenly aware of the surrounding quiet, and put his hand in the water,

which was cold.

Unthinkingly, he lifted her white sweater and smelled the wood smoke from earlier that evening,

the synthetic lavender of what he knew to be her shower gel. He said her name again,

louder now, then looked around. A few birds skimmed the undisturbed surface of the lake. No,

those were bats. When did she dive or step off the boat and how could she

have made no splash and what if she was drowned? He yelled now. A dog responded in the distance.

From spinning around in search of her he felt dizzy and sat down. Then he stood again and looked

...