Louis suggests that what may be hardest to live with about violence is not the initial shock when it occurs but how quickly it becomes natural as our bubbles re-form themselves around it. Change and L’effondrement, where the narrative and authorial voice are virtually one and the same, attempt to strike the difficult pose of neither ignoring nor accepting violence, allowing it to be at once ubiquitous and terrible.

‘He knows his brother is driving. The two of them are in their mother’s car and his brother is next to him. He rests his head against the passenger window and closes his eyes. There are bumps in the road. His head bangs against the window but there is no pain.’

On this month’s episode, host Nicole Flattery is joined by writers Paula Dias Garcia and James Young to read from and discuss their stories featured in the latest issue of The Stinging Fly magazine, Issue 51 Volume Two.

‘Alderman, Powers and Kushner all use fiction to think creatively about our contemporary moment, connecting ideas about past, present and future, human and non-human intelligence, in thoughtful and surprising ways.’

“The children step forward one by one, and say, ‘I’m special because…’ and one by one they fill in why with brave, loud voices. They’re too young to hide who they are. The people watching them know them better than they’ll ever know themselves.”