Emma Cline reads her story from the April 10, 2017, issue of the magazine. Cline’s first novel, “The Girls,” was published in 2016, and was shortlisted for the John Leonard Award from the National Book Critics Circle. She won The Paris Review’s George Plimpton Award in 2014.

He stood there for another few minutes before a boy and a girl ambled toward him, the boy not immediately recognizable as his son. It was Rowan, obvious now as the boy got closer, and Richard pretended he’d known all along. Wasn’t that what parents were supposed to do? Be able to spot their children in a crowd, in an instant, the most primal of recognitions?