The New Yorker: Fiction · The New Yorker

Ayşegül Savaş Reads Tessa Hadley

December 1, 2024·1 hr 25 min·5 clips

Ayşegül Savaş stopped teaching Tessa Hadley's story because its technical perfection was too terrifying to dissect.

The frame is simple and formal. Deborah Treisman introduces herself as the fiction editor and sets up the podcast's monthly habit: a writer picks a story from the archive and reads it. Aishagul Savash chooses Tessa Hadley, though Treisman notes she first narrowed it to two Hadley stories, which says plenty about the pull here before the reading even starts. The story begins with Jane watching a car approach while silky dust slips between her toes. Then Daniel appears, almost too beautiful for the room he enters. Desire arrives through watching. The reading lets the pressure collect slowly around Jane at the pool. Fiona acts polished and in charge. Daniel sees what she is doing and resents it, while his attention drifts toward Jane's steady swimming and the openness he senses in her. Jane barely speaks. Her wet costume, nervous looks, and readiness to be guided make the scene feel exposed without overexplaining it. Daniel stays behind on purpose. When the others leave for the pub, he follows Jane inside, and the private danger of that choice takes over. The episode does not push the material with loud commentary. It trusts Hadley's prose to do the unsettling work. Savash is introduced through her books, and the ending returns to literary context, naming her novels, her nonfiction book The Wilderness, a forthcoming story collection, and her fiction in The New Yorker. It feels like a quiet reading room more than a chat show, with the story allowed to gather its force slowly.

As heard by us

A tense Tessa Hadley reading turns a poolside afternoon into a study of attention, power, and unease.

The episode gives Tessa Hadley's "An Abduction" the quiet pressure it needs. Deborah Treisman introduces the 2012 New Yorker story, and Aysegul Savas chooses Hadley as a writer she read while trying out how to become one herself.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

A full reading of Tessa Hadley, introduced by a writer who says Hadley mattered while she was trying to become a writer.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from The New Yorker: Fiction