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 Yiyun Lee read her story, All Will Be Well, from the March 11th, 2019 issue of the magazine.

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

The Vagrants, Kinder Than Solitude, and Where Reasons End, which was published last year.

Now here's Yi and Lee.

All Will Be Well Once Upon a Time, I was All will be well.

Once upon a time, I was addicted to a salon,

and never caught a head and rarely had to wait.

Not everyone went to Lily's for a haircut.

The old man Lily called uncles sat at a cart table,

reading newspapers and magazines

in Chinese and Vietnamese.

The television above the counter

was tuned to a channel based in Riverside

and the aunties,

related or not related to the uncles,

watched cooking shows and teledramas in Mandarin.

I was the only customer under 60,

and the only one who spoke in English.

With others,

Lili used Vietnamese, Cantonese, or Mandarin.

...