“20 Under 40” Highlights Great Women Writers

Each writer featured in 20 Under 40: Stories from The New Yorker represents a unique strand of what the future holds for American fiction, but as their characters ran through the post-Emancipation American South and stumbled through futuristic Rome, nearly every author examined loneliness. Similar to Freedom’s female protagonist, Patty, many of the women described throughout 20 Under 40 faced anxious isolation in the face of limitless options.