David Wright Faladé Reads Madeleine Thien

Deborah Treisman· Host0:00

[upbeat music] This is "The New Yorker Fiction" podcast from The New Yorker magazine. I'm Deborah Treisman, 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 Lu Reshaping by Madeleine Thien, which appeared in The New Yorker in December of 2021.

David Wright Faladé· Guest0:24

If I could give you a pill that would change your whole life, let you go back in time and fix things, and maybe be a whole other person, would you take it? Of course. Seriously? All my life I've wanted to change shapes, change skins. That was my dream when I was your age.

Deborah Treisman· Host0:39

The story was chosen by David Wright Falade, the author of the novels Black Cloud Rising and The New Internationals, which came out earlier this year. Hi, David.

David Wright Faladé· Guest0:48

Hey.

Deborah Treisman· Host0:49

So I know that you and Madeleine Thien were colleagues at the Cullman Center- Yeah ... at the New York Public Library a few years ago. Was that what made you think of talking about this story today, or had you been a fan of her work before that?

David Wright Faladé· Guest1:03

I didn't know Maddie's work before then, and then I remember getting to know her that fall, and then the story came out, and I was so happy for her- [laughs] ... to see the story in the magazine, and then as soon as I read it, I was just awed. I remember going into her office and just being like, "You are awesome." You know? [laughs] "This is great." I remember I was intimidated at first. Like, my first thought when I find a story that I'm drawn to is I think, "Can I teach it?" And with her, it was like, I would love to teach this, but I don't think I could teach it. It was just so