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 Nicole Krause read her story Shelter,

which appeared in the October 3, 2022 issue of the magazine.

Krause is the author of four novels, including The History of Love and Forest Dark.

Her story collection, to be a man, was published in 2020 and won the Wingate Literary Prize.

Now here's Nicole Krause.

Shelter.

The paradox of personal religion.

God has abandoned me, so I'll pray.

Ah, my knees, the sky exploding, and her on her back, gasping from the pain,

making use of all the Arabic curses.

Cohen saw the pregnant woman five or six times before they ended up together in the mamaq,

a room with reinforced concrete walls, a heavy sealed window,

and a steel vault of a door that can protect residents from deadly gas, earthquakes,

or the blast of rockets.

One room on each floor, stacked atop one another, creating a core of safe rooms in the building.

She lived across the hull from the apartment he'd air be in bead.

One of those young, televivian women who looked like they'd learned craft magat the breast,

waited enough tables to be able to size up what you wanted,

everything you wanted with a glance, and never apologized.

Knows ringed, silver bangled, carrying low the way his wife had when she was pregnant with their sons.

...