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Music This is Amelia Island.com. This is The Writer's Voice, new fiction from The New Yorker.

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

On this episode of The Writer's Voice, we'll hear Douglas Stewart read his story

A Private View from the April 20th, 2026 issue of the magazine.

Stewart has published two novels, Shuggy Bain, which won the Booker Prize in 2020,

and Young Mungo, which came out in 2022.

A new novel, John of John, will be published in May.

Now here's Douglas Stewart.

A Private View

None of the men looked up as my mother came down the museum's stairs.

I felt sorry for her.

I wished I could make them notice.

When she reached the middle landing, she paused, and I could tell she was resisting the urge to go back up

and give them a second chance to get a good look. I smiled as she began to descend the final set. She gave a little kick with each step so that her long coat parted and revealed a shapely leg. Jean wasn't wearing her glasses, which helped to spare her from disappointment. She couldn't see

that the men had ignored her, but I was certain she had felt it. She couldn't see me from this

distance either, but she didn't squint or search about. She simply arrived in the space,

knowing I would be there for her. I was always there for her. As she neared the bottom of

the stairs, she unbuttoned her coat. She was wearing her favourite dress, the knitted one with herons

embroidered on the front, their necks intertwined, and the moonlit sky behind them set with piettes and

...