This is the New Yorker Fiction Podcast from the New Yorker magazine.

I'm Deborah 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 Seeing Ershadi by Nicole Kraus, which was published in

the New Yorker in March of 2018.

What I knew of love had always stemmed from desire, from the wish to be altered or thrown

off course by some uncontrollable force.

But in my love for Ershadi, I nearly didn't exist beyond that great feeling.

The story was chosen by Ling Ma, the author of the novel Severance and the story collection

Bliss Montage, which came out in September.

Hi Ling, welcome to the podcast.

Hi Deborah, thank you for having me.

Yeah, so why did you choose a story by Nicole Kraus to read today?

Well, I think I picked Seeing Ershadi because I don't actually understand it.

It's a little bit mysterious to me and it feels like a riddle.

I also think it describes this feeling very well, which occurs maybe more when you're younger,

encountering a work of art at the right time can seem like this supernatural intervention.

It often happens when you're young, but also maybe during times of grief when you're already

sensitized.

And there's sort of a melancholic air to this story that I also liked.

The story involves a character who sees a movie or rather an actor in a movie who makes

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