By Ruth Prawer Jhabvala

After his second heart attack, the judge knew that he could no longer put off informing his wife about the contents of his will. He did this for the sake of the woman he had been keeping for twenty-five years, who, ever since his first attack, had been agitating about provisions for her future. These had long been in place in his will, known only to the lawyer who had drawn it up, but it was intolerable to the judge to think that their execution would be in the hands of his family; that is, his wife and son. Not because he expected them to make trouble but because they were both too impractical, too light-minded to carry out his wishes once he was not there to enforce them.

This suspicion was confirmed for him by the way Binny received his secret. Any normal wife, he thought, would have been aghast to learn of her husband’s long-standing adultery. But Binny reacted as though she had just heard some spicy piece of gossip. She was pouring his tea and, quivering with excitement, spilled some in the saucer. He turned his face from her. “Go away,” he told her, and then became more exasperated by the eagerness with which she hurried off to reveal the secret to their son…

Continue reading “The Judge’s Will,” new fiction featured in this week’s issue: http://nyr.kr/16pRD3V

Photograph by Chiara Goia.

(Source: newyorker.com)

This week in the magazine, Jeffrey Toobin writes a Profile of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who even before her time on the Supreme Court played an important role in shaping the legal framework for women’s rights and gender discrimination. Here Toobin and Margaret Talbot talk with Amy Davidson about Ginsburg’s legacy and some of the current issues the Court is addressing. Also, fiction from a veteran of the war in Afghanistan.  Click-through to listen now: http://nyr.kr/15sjBe5

   Read “Kattekoppen,” this week’s fiction by Will Mackin, about one soldier’s experience as a Navy SEAL in Afghanistan: http://nyr.kr/15WX5eh In this Q&A, Mackin, who as an officer in the Navy has been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, discusses his story, the difficulties of writing about traumatic events, and how he feels about others’ attempts to represent the war in fiction and film: http://nyr.kr/15sjBup

Read “The Embassy of Cambodia,” fiction by Zadie Smith featured in this week’s issue: http://nyr.kr/W37W0F

I have dealt with American authorities before, when coming to Ellis Island. They made me wait in line for nineteen hours, then flipped up my eyelids and shoved wooden stick into my eyeballs. It was not great, but I would take it over this “W-2.”

Read the fourth and final installment of “Sell Out,” Simon Rich’s hilarious novella about Herschel, the pickle-maker from 1912 who’s been magically transported to modern-day Brooklyn and must fend for himself: http://nyr.kr/WGc3kN

Even though I possess seven pennies, I know I must be careful about spending them. New York is expensive city. There is no telling how long they will last.

The trick to surviving with low funds is to not have such high standards. For example, in Slupsk, you could buy bowl of milk for three rubles. But they would sell you milk for just two rubles if you drank it directly from goat. It was not easy drinking from the goat, because she was strong and had anger problems. Still, a ruble is a ruble, and I always made sure to refuse bowl. As the saying goes in Slupsk: “Sometimes you must drink milk right out of the goat, because it costs two rubles instead of the three rubles.” 

I think about this saying as I walk the streets of Brooklyn. There are so many decadent restaurants, each one more luxurious than the last. I pass one named in honor of the pirate Long John Silver, which serves assorted treasures from the sea. Then I pass one that serves chicken that is crisped, in the style of Kentucky. Most amazing to me is a large white castle, which sells Salisbury steaks between breads. Their food is so rich I can smell it from the street. My stomach is rumbling, but I know that these places are beyond me. Their signs are spelled out with electric, flashing lights. If I want to survive, I must find someplace more humble…

Read Part 2 of Simon Rich’s “Sell Out,” about the journey of a pickle-maker from the past who tries to fend for himself in modern-day Williamsburg: http://nyr.kr/WvrV9J

Read new fiction by Nicole Krauss featured in this week’s issue: http://nyr.kr/Xy6DVp

…and here, Krauss discusses her story with fiction editor Deborah Treisman: http://nyr.kr/SZU9t6

“Clark Kent has Superman, Beyoncé has Sasha Fierce, and I have old Jewish men…” 

Fiction editor Deborah Treisman talks to George Saunders about his new book, “Tenth of December”: http://nyr.kr/Wprlav

Photograph: Damon Winter/The New York Times/Redux

Read new fiction by Tessa Hadley, featured in this week’s issue: http://nyr.kr/WZcseQ

Read Jhumpa Lahiri’s story “Year’s End,” a short story about an Indian-American college student meeting his stepmother and stepsisters who have moved to the United States from India: http://nyr.kr/WVDlSD