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 Camille Bordas read her story,

Most Die Young, from the January 2nd, 2017 issue of the magazine.

Bordas has published two novels in France, Le Tres Deser and Partie Comune.

Her first novel in English, How to Behave in a Crowd, will be published in the U.S. in August.

Now here's Camille Bordas.

Most die young.

Most die young, Professor Crows admitted.

Define Young, I said, not looking up for my notebook.

Professor Crows was not a pretty sight.

There were white spots on the back and the sides of her tongue,

and she seemed unaware of them, or unconcerned at least.

She opened her mouth wide to say even the smallest things.

Under the age of 38, she said.

I wrote young, less than 38, and underlined it twice.

It didn't matter that I'd just turned 38.

I never took anything personally.

Professor Crows went on to list the main causes of death among the Powang, a Malaysian tribe that she'd studied as a young anthropologist.

She said, they get murdered, of course. They're such an easy target. Or they go hang themselves in the forest when they've had enough.

Sometimes they convince themselves they've been cursed, and they fade out and die within a few weeks without any evidence of infection or disease. I was writing a story on the Powong for White, a cultural magazine with interests so broad that no one quite knew how to think about it.

From one month to the next, I'd seen a shuffle around among the entertainment, politics,

...