Out of Bounds sometimes refers to errant tennis balls or other sports-related transgressions.

But to be out-of-bounds socially or politically changes the game completely.

This week on selecteded Shorts,

characters find themselves right at the line.

I'm Meg Wallitzer.

Please stay with me.

You're listening to Selected Shorts,

where our greatest actors transport us through the magic

of fiction, one short story at a time. Boundaries can be useful. They can define countries or

neighborhoods or landscapes or homes, and personal boundaries keep our private selves private

while we navigate social interactions. They are lines drawn on

maps, on the ground, and around and in front of us. But what happens when those boundaries are

breached or assailed or even redrawn? And specifically, what happens to individuals who are suddenly

out of bounds?

The two very different stories on this program involve women whose lives are remapped.

In one story, a young woman navigates perilous social and sexual waters and might cross some lines in the process.

In the second, a mother makes pivotal choices in the midst of war when her own boundaries are reset by outside forces.

Our first story is Amy Silverberg's Somebody's Daughter.

She's an L.A. based writer and comedian, and her fiction has turned up in Best American Short Stories and the Paris Review, among other places.

You can find her doing stand-up on Comedy Central, Hulu, and Amazon Prime. And when she's not busy, ha, she's at work on a novel.

The story was a selected shorts commission and is also featured in Silverberg's collection,

Somebody's Daughter, Stories. Somebody's Daughter is performed by Hetienne Park.

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