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 The Surrogate by Tessa Hadley,

which was published in The New Yorker in September of 2003.

When he asked for a pint of Stella, his accent was ordinary,

not like Patrick's educated one.

When I smiled at him and made some comment about the football match, he blushed.

And I guess that he was shy and maybe not very clever.

The story was chosen by Curtis Sitenfeld,

who's published five novels, including Prep, Sisterland, and Alligable,

which came out last year.

Hi, Curtis.

Hi, Debra.

Now, The Surrogate, the Tessa Hadley story, came out almost 15 years ago.

Did you read it back then?

Yes, I read it in the magazine.

So you were probably still a student, like the character in the story?

I might be older than you think I am.

So I'm about to turn 42.

So I was, oh no, this is the other name.

You were late 20s.

...