This is the writer's voice, new fiction from The New Yorker.

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

On this episode of The Writer's Voice, we'll hear Yiu and Lee read her story, A Flawless Silence,

from the April 23rd, 2018 issue of the magazine.

Lee is the author of two novels and two story collections,

Gold Boy Amerald Girl, and A Thousand Years of Good Prayers.

She's been publishing fiction and nonfiction in The New Yorker since 2003.

Now here's Yi Yun Li.

A flawless silence.

A few times a year, around major Chinese holidays,

Min received an email from a man whom she had met twice in her life.

Every November, after the celebration of another birthday, on November 3rd, he never failed to remind her.

He also attached a picture of himself and begged for a picture of her.

In the past 12 years, the number of his grandchildren had quadrupled. His oldest grandson had graduated from college and taken a good job in New York City.

The next two grandchildren were in college. There were a few more, mostly on the West Coast. The youngest, a boy born with a noble look, the man had nicknamed

J.C. for Juliet Caesar. In 2012, his wife had died, but he was healthy in general,

minus some common conditions that plagued old people, high blood pressure,

and faulty short-term memory.

There were other details in his emails, a week of vacation in Hawaii, a couple new to the

farmer's market, who worked as elementary school teachers but sold blueberries on weekends,

a favorite restaurant closing because of a rent hike.

Most people would have written long ago with a stern reply, telling the sender to stop emailing.

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