Rachel Kushner reads her story “A King Alone” from the July 11 & 18, 2022, issue of the magazine. Kushner has published three novels, “Telex from Cuba,” “The Flamethrowers,” and “The Mars Room,” which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2018. Her most recent book, “The Hard Crowd: Essays 2000-2020,” came out last year.