Adios, Sayonara, Goodbye!

·57 min·5 clips

A sweater that hasn't been worn for three years sips tropical juice in a Hawaii-themed paradise for decluttered objects.

The hour begins with moving. Wolitzer treats it as a chore with teeth: drawers to sort, boxes to pack, and the rude discovery that a household has been quietly collecting evidence against itself. The exercise bike, the fancy dishes, and the three corkscrews are not just clutter. They are attachment with dust on it. The question is what can be let go. From there, the program turns to fiction about what stays after loss, and what might still arrive after it. Sunrise carries the weight. Erika Kobayashi's story, translated by Brian Bergstrom and read by Rita Wolf, ends with a baby opening its eyes to the sun. Wolitzer is careful with the title. Sunrise is not Sunset, and that matters. The story is heavy with the past, but it does not end in extinction. Light is not simple comfort here. Wolitzer points out how Kobayashi lets darkness and brightness swap jobs until both feel intimate, frightening, and human. Dark glasses become a way to see. A pitch-black morning dress gives darkness a body while the mother moves between huge forces and ordinary human tenderness. Then the register shifts again. The final story comes from Hiromi Kawakami, introduced through myth, strange attraction, and the comic trouble of loving a mermaid. Hugh Dancy reads it. The enchantment is real, but so are the problems: a bathtub that is no longer really yours and mackerel bills that get out of hand. Wolitzer gives each story enough room, then gets out of the way so the ache, humor, and goodbye can land.

As heard by us

A graceful hour about attachment and letting go, with wry framing and varied readings.

Selected Shorts spends its hour on attachment, and on the small things people refuse to let go of, with Meg Wolitzer keeping the tone lightly wry.

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Why you'd press play

For when moving day feels like an existential audit.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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