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 a story by Jamaica Kincaid called Figures in the Distance.

I once had heard someone say about another dead person,

that it was a sif the dead person were asleep,

but I had seen a person asleep and this girl did not look asleep.

The story was chosen by Chimamanda Ingozia Dice,

whose story Bird Song was published in the September 20th issue of the magazine

as part of our 20 under 40 series.

She has published two novels and a collection of short stories called The Thing Around Your Neck.

Hi Chimamanda.

Hello Debra.

So you were born in Nigeria and you lived there until you were 19.

When did you start reading Jamaica Kincaid?

Were you reading her back then or after you moved to the US?

I discovered her in America.

I didn't read her in Nigeria.

So I remember actually reading Lucy,

which was the first thing of hers that I read.

Lucy is her novel about being a nanny here now.

Yes, so Lucy is the novel about the character who comes from the Caribbean

...