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

I'm Debra Triesman, fiction editor at The New Yorker.

On this episode of The writer's voice, we'll hear Camille Bordas read her story off-site constantly

from the June 28th, 2021 issue of the magazine.

Bordas has published two novels in France, Lait-Claise-de-Cère et-Pas-de-comune.

Her first novel in English, How to Behave in Crowd, was published in 2017.

Now here's Camille Bordas.

Offside constantly.

I read a lot about famous people and how they died, or just what diseases they had.

I started with actors and writers, but now I'm down to congressmen.

Painters too, I read a lot about, but only because my brother has so many books about them.

Is it has or had? The brother is gone, but the books are still here.

My brother loved painters' paintings. Me, I don't really know what to do with it painting.

How long I'm supposed to look at it. I prefer movies.

Before I watch a movie, I check how long it will last.

My brother was always going to die young. He had cystic fibrosis.

But still, he thought maybe he'd last long enough to study art history at the Sarbonne

and then some more the Ecole du Louvre after that, and then maybe have his own gallery in Paris one day.

He painted a little bit himself, Thomas, but he wasn't very good at it.

That's what he said at least. I liked his stuff, I think, but mostly because I liked him a lot.

When it comes to art, I can't really tell what's good and what isn't.

What's easier to tell apart than good art and bad art, though, is a prestige illness from a regular one.

...