This is The Writer's Voice, new fiction from The New Yorker.

I'm Deborah Treasman, fiction editor at The New Yorker.

On this episode of The Writer's Voice, we'll hear Rachel Cusk read her story project from the

September 1st and 8th, 2025 issue of the magazine.

Cusk is the author of several works of nonfiction and 12 novels, including outline, transit,

kudos, and most recently Parade, which won the 2024 goldsmiths prize.

Now here's Rachel Cusk.

Project

A little while ago I told the actor M

that I was thinking of writing her autobiography. She liked the idea.

She's a good sport. We had met in a bookstore. She was interested in books. In addition to being a

film star, she was the model for a popular brand of face cream, and her image looked out everywhere,

from shop windows and hoardings,

and the rain-streaked perspex of bus shelters. In the photograph she appeared very young and happy.

Her smile had a sweetness that almost seemed to reproach those who looked at it for their dim

and suspicious view of life. She lived in a large house on the other side of the river.

In person she was very small, and the house was like a big doll's house, with her as the doll

inside it.

We knew a couple of people in common.

One of them told me a funny story about a dinner they'd attended at a restaurant,

where Em's bodyguard had insisted that she'd changed places with another film star,

who was older and less famous,

...