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

I'm Deborah Trisman, Fiction Editor at The New Yorker.

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

The Mom of Bold Action from the August 30th, 2021 issue of the magazine.

Saunders won the Man Booker Prize in 2017 for his novel, Lincoln and the Bardo.

He's the author of four-story collections, including Civil Warland in Bad Decline and 10th of December.

Now here's George Saunders.

The mom of bold action.

Again, she found herself spending her precious morning writing time,

pacing her lovable sty of a kitchen making no progress at all.

Why was she holding a can opener? Hmm, that could be something. The trusty little

opener. Gerard, the can opener was a dreamer. He wanted to open big things, bigger things,

the biggest things. But all he ever got to open was beans, corn, tuna.

You had to give him something essential to open to save the day.

Medicine?

Heart medicine?

You did not open heart medicine with a can opener.

Tomato paste.

Some beloved person in the household really longed for spaghetti, old Italian gal,

friend to all. On her last legs, the spaghetti brought her back to Florence or whatever.

But the modern high-tech opener, Cliff, was out partying with a wicked colander and a cynical head of lettuce. Gerard saw

his chance. Even though he dated back through the 1960s and didn't have a fancy rubber handle

...