On April 3, The Paris Review will honor Joy Williams with the Hadada Award for lifetime achievement at our annual gala, the Spring Revel. In anticipation, we’ve asked the renowned artist Brad Holland to illustrate five stories from her 2013 collection, Ninety-Nine Stories of God. One story and illustration will appear each morning this week.

An original illustration by Brad Holland.

6

You know that dream of Tolstoy’s where he’s in some sort of bed contraption suspended between the abyss below and the abyss above? You know that one? Well, I gave it to him, the Lord said.

SEE THAT YOU REMEMBER

Joy Williams has published ten stories in The Paris Review. Her most recent, “Flour,” appears in the Spring issue. 

From Ninety-Nine Stories of God, by Joy Williams. Reprinted with permission from Tin House Books.