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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 Gold Watch by John McGairn, which appeared in The New Yorker in March of 1980.

I knew myself too well. There was more caution than any love or charity in my habitual

going home. It was unattractive, and it had been learned in the bitter school of my

ungiving father. The story was chosen by Tessa Hadley, who's the author of 13 books of fiction, including

the story collections, Bad Dreams and After the Funeral, and the novella The Party,

which came out in 2024.

Hi, Tessa.

Hi, Deborah.

Welcome back to the podcast.

Ah, what a treat.

So, Tessa, in previous episodes of the podcast, you read stories by Nadine Gordimer and

John Updike.

Did those writers have anything in common with McGarron for you?

Are they part of a kind of triumvirate of writers for you?

They are in my inner circle of beloved writers, all three of them.

They are among my favorite short story writers. Yeah. Tell me about your connection with John

...