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 book of Sand by Jorge Luis Borges, translated from

the Spanish by Norman Thomas D. Giovanni, which was published in the New Yorker in October

of 1976.

He opened the suitcase and laid the book on a table.

It was an octavo volume bound in cloth.

There was no doubt that it had passed through many hands.

The story was chosen by Mosin Hammett, who is the author of four novels including the reluctant

fundamentalist and ex-at-west, which were both finalists for the man-booker prize.

He joins us from true brew records in Lahore, Pakistan.

Hi Mosin.

Hi Debra.

So can we start by just talking about why you wanted to read a Borges story today?

I know that was important to you.

I'm wondering what Borges has meant to you both as a writer and as a reader.

Well, Borges is a hugely important writer for me.

When I was looking back at the New Yorker archives, there were so many amazing writers, but

I suppose I began by thinking of the ones that I most wanted to read.

I was surprised to discover so many Borges stories in the New Yorker.

...