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 Reverse Bug by Laurie Siegel.

There was a rustle of people turning to locate the voice that had said, my father went to

the American consulate.

But it said nothing further, and the audience settled back.

The story was chosen by Jennifer Egan, six of whose stories have appeared in the magazine.

Her latest novel, which incorporates some of those stories, is called a visit from the

Goonsquad.

She joins me today in the office.

Hi, Jenny.

Hello.

So the New Yorkers published 19 stories by Laurie Siegel since 1961, and The Reverse Bug

came out in 1989.

Did you first encounter her work in the magazine?

No, I actually had been at a writer's conference where she was teaching, so I think I had read

some of her work before.

Uh-huh.

When was that?

1987.

...