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 Falls by George Saunders,

which was published in The New Yorker in January of 1996.

His childhood dreams have been so bright, yet hope for so much.

It couldn't be true that he was a nobody.

Although, on the other hand, what kind of somebody spends the best years of his life

wearing at a photo cop here?

Not that he was complaining.

Not that he was unaware he had plenty to be thankful for.

The story was chosen by Will Macon, whose first book, Bring Out the Dog,

was published in 2018 and won the Penn Robert W. Bingham Prize for debut short story collection.

Hi, Will.

Hey, Deborah.

Thank you for joining us.

Oh, thanks for having me.

You at some point took a writing seminar with George Saunders, is that right?

Yes, that's right.

I signed up for the summer literary seminars in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

Never having read any of his stories, I just saw a picture of him

wearing these boots that I thought were cool.

...