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

I'm Deppre Treasman, fiction editor at The New Yorker.

On this episode of The Writer's Voice, we'll hear Emma Klein read her story, What Can You Do with the

General, from the February 4th, 2019 issue of the magazine. Klein's first novel, The Girls, was

published in 2016. She's a winner of the Paris Review's Plimpton Prize and was named one of

Grant's best young American novelists in 2017. Now here's Emma Klein.

What can you do with a general?

Linda was inside on her phone, to who this early? From the hot tub, John watched her pace in her robe and an old swimsuit in a faded tropical print that probably belonged to one of the girls.

It was nice to drift a little in the water, to glide to the other side of the tub, holding his coffee above the waterline, the jets churning away.

The fig tree was bare, had been for a month now, but the persimmon trees were full.

The kids should bake cookies when they get here, he thought.

Persimmon cookies.

Wasn't that what Linda used to make when the kids were little?

Or what else? Jam, maybe?

All this fruit going to waste, it was disgusting.

He'd get the yard guy to pick a few crates of persimmons before the kids came, so that all they'd have to do was bake them.

Linda would know where to find the recipe.

The screen door banged. Linda folded her robe, climbed into the hot tub.

Sasha's flights delayed.

Till? Probably won't land until four or five. Holiday traffic would be a

nightmare then coming back from the airport. An hour there, then two hours back, if not more.

Sasha didn't have her license, couldn't rent a car, not that she would think to offer.

...