Barbara A. Barnett’s story “A Red One Cannot See” tells the story of Philibert, a lémur-homme who tries to return to his island home. I adored this one not just because of the lemurs, but because of the delicacy with which it explores the costs of “progress.”

Click here to listen to Barbara read from “A Red One Cannot See” (600kb MP3).

Here’s an excerpt:

“It will be a lonely ride, lémur-homme,” his mentor had told him before his departure — the human mentor who had taken him from the island years before and given him the name Philibert. “Have you not thought that there might be a reason so few of your kind return to the island?”

Mist hung over the island the way smoke hovered around the factory stacks in the mainland city of New Madagascar. The humans would be building those factories on the island soon, Philibert had heard. The forests would be razed, and when his family became too numerous for the enclaves into which they would be forced, they would be put in zoos or caged as pets — pets that would be hidden at parties whenever a lémur-homme like himself was in attendance.

Want to read the rest of the issue? We’ve got 19 more fantastic stories!