Hi, I'm Lovar Burton and this is Lovar Burton Reads.

Where in every episode I hand pick a different piece of short fiction and are read it to you.

The only thing these stories have in common is that I love them and I hope you will too.

Today's story comes to us from the Argentine writer Samantha Schweblin.

Samantha is the author of three story collections that have won numerous awards, including the prestigious Juan Rulfhoe Story Prize.

She's been translated into 20 languages.

Her first novel was longlisted for the man book her international prize, so you know how she rolls.

She's got it like that.

She's originally from Wanness Eris and now lives in Berlin, which has got to be fascinating.

This story comes from her collection, Mouth Full of Birds, translated by Megan McDowell, published by Riverhead Books.

This piece is called Toward Happy Civilization and like other stories in her collection, it takes place in a world that's familiar, but in which extraordinary things happen.

In an interview, Samantha herself had drawn the distinction between fiction of the fantastic, which involves things that could never possibly happen,

and the extraordinary, that is things that are unlikely to happen but could.

We begin the story with Grooner, a man waiting at a train platform in the countryside.

It's a normal enough situation he wants to buy a train ticket, but that transaction doesn't unfold in the way that he expects.

So, you're ready.

Let's take a deep breath.

And begin.

Toward Happy Civilization by Samantha Schwebler.

He's lost his ticket, and from behind the ticket window's white bars, the station agent refuses to sell him another, saying there's no change in the drawer.

From a station bench, he looks at the immense dry countryside that opens out in all directions.

He crosses his legs and unfolds the pages of the newspaper, in search of articles that will make the time pass faster.

...