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 daughters of the moon

by Italo Calvino.

And her body was not the only one glowing before my eyes.

Now I saw girls everywhere, stretched out

in the strangest poses, clinging to the radiators, doors,

and fenders of the speeding cars.

The story was chosen by Robert Coover, whose last novel noir

came out in 2010.

A new novel, The Brunest Day of Wrath,

will be published in September.

Robert Coover joins us from Providence, Rhode Island.

Hi, Bob.

Hi.

So my first question for you is, is what made Calvino

an obvious choice for you here?

When we talked about this, you mentioned this triumvirate

of Calvino and Borges and Bartholomey.

And I just wondered, are those the writers you turn to most often?

...