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 Joseph O'Neill read his story, The Flyer,

from the November 11th, 2019 issue of the magazine.

O'Neill is the author of four novels, including Netherlands, which won the Penn

Faulkner Award for Fiction in 2009, and The Dog.

His first story collection, Good Trouble, was published last year.

Now here's Joseph O'Neill.

The Flyer.

The whole business led my wife to suggest a conference with our dear friends Pam and Becky,

who were discreet and worldly and kind.

She wrote them,

Hey, wonderful people, can we drag you over for dinner Wednesday?

Short notice, but there's something we'd like to talk over with you.'

I prepared the meal, cucumber soup, grilled chicken breast, and a lentil and scallion salad.

Cooking had been Vicky's thing, not mine, but I'd been stuck at home for months,

and the kitchen had become a place of recreation. Also, my relationship with my body had changed.

Pam and Becky arrived on the dot at seven. My illness had made me very small and very light,

and they embraced me gently.

He looked so young, Becky said to Vicky.

Where's Molly?

Our daughter, Molly, aged five,

...