Guadalupe Nettel’s “Life Elsewhere” might be the best new short story I’ve seen in 2025.
It starts with a hunt for an apartment, and I thought it was going to be a story about a couple growing apart. The narrator, a frustrated actor, wants a place in the theater district. His wife, a book illustrator, wants a bigger place with more light.
But it’s a deeper tale. Sometimes, when we seem to want a different apartment, we really want a different life.
Perhaps this story hit me in a blind spot. I’m one of those people: I am immersed in the details of the life I have and don’t spend much energy imagining a life I don’t live. I know that such people are out there. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen one portrayed so well in fiction.
• Source: Guadalupe Nettel, “Life Elsewhere,” translated by Rosalind Harvey; The Yale Review, March 11, 2025. It’s here:
https://yalereview.org/article/guadalupe-nettel-life-elsewhere
