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 The Point by Charles D'Ambrosio.

After a summer, I'd have the dirt on everyone, whether I wanted it or not.

But I had developed a priestly sense of my position.

The story was chosen by Matthew Klam, the author of Sam the Cat and other stories.

Eight of his stories have been published in The New Yorker, and back in 1999, he was

included on the magazine's list of 20 writers for the 21st century.

Hi, Matt.

Hi, Deborah.

So The Point came out in The New Yorker in 1990, and it was the title story of Charles

D'Ambrosio's first collection, which was published in 1995.

Then his second collection, The Deadfish Museum, was published in 2006.

When did you first come across his work?

I read this story when it appeared in The New Yorker.

Was it the first piece of his you'd read?

Yes, it was, and the interesting thing is that it's stuck with me ever since.

It's a story that I've kind of kept close all these years.

I've had a chance to meet him at an event here in Washington, and I didn't because I love

this story so much.

...