This is the New Yorker Fiction Podcast from The New Yorker magazine.

I'm Deborah 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 Lou Reshaping by Madeline Tian, which appeared in

the New Yorker in December of 2021. If I could give you a pill that would change your whole life,

let you go back in time and fix things, and maybe be a whole other person. Would you take it? Of course.

Seriously? All my life I've wanted to change shapes. Change skins. That was my dream when I was your

age. The story was chosen by David Wright-Falliday, the author of the novel's Black Cloud Rising,

and the New Internationals, which came out earlier this year. Hi, David. Hey. So I know that you

and Madeline Tian were colleagues at the Coleman Center at the New York Public Library a few years ago.

Was that what made you think of talking about this story today?

Or had you been a fan of her work before that?

I didn't know Maddie's work before then.

And then I remember getting to know her that fall.

And then the story came out and I was so happy for her to see the story in the magazine.

And then as soon as I read it, I was just odd.

I remember going into her office and just being like, you are awesome.

You know, this is great.

I remember it was intimidated at first.

Like my first thought when I find a story that I'm drawn to as I think, can I teach it? And with her, it was like, I would love to teach us, but I don't think I could teach it.

It was just so subtle and there was so much going on.

Yeah.

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