This is The Writer's Voice, new fiction from The New Yorker.

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

On this episode of The Writer's Voice, we'll hear Claire Sustanovic read her story, You Tell Me,

from the August 1st, 2022 issue of the magazine.

Sustanovic was named a 535 honoree by the National Book Foundation in 2022.

Her debut story collection, Objects of Desire, which came out last year, was a finalist for the pen Robert W. Bingham Price.

No, here's Claire Sustanovic.

You Tell Me.

When her daughter's husband called, Janet was in the parking lot of a store that sold everything.

Electronics and linens, and huge plastic buckets of snacks.

She was there to replace her TV remote, even though she didn't watch much TV.

Now that she was old, older, as young people said, circumspectly.

She had less tolerance for obsolescence.

It was unpleasant to be reminded of her own.

In her confusion at what her son-in-law was telling her, she pointed the remote at the old blue sedan, pressing play to lock the doors.

She hasn't been herself, Danny said.

Fortified, Janet buried the remote in her purse.

She found her keys and made the car click, then beep.

Danny and Sasha had been married for less than a year, and Janet, who had no objection to their union in particular, was not yet used to the idea and the abstract.

Her child was someone's wife.

Janet herself had not been anyone's wife for almost a decade, since Sasha's father died.

He hadn't been old, but he hadn't been young either.

...