Gary Shteyngart

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A deliciously dark tale of America’s dysfunctional coming years—and the timeless and tender feelings that just might bring us back from the brink.NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BYThe New York Times • The Washington Post • The Boston Globe • San Francisco Chronicle • The Seattle Times • The Oprah Magazine • Maureen Corrigan, NPR • Salon • Slate • Minneapolis Star Tribune • St. Louis Post-Dispatch • The Kansas City Star • Charlotte Observer • The Globe and Mail • Vancouver Sun • Montreal Gazette • Kirkus ReviewsIn the near future, America is crushed by a financial crisis and our patient Chinese creditors may just be ready to foreclose on the whole mess. Then Lenny Abramov, son of an Russian immigrant janitor and ardent fan of “printed, bound media artifacts” (aka books), meets Eunice Park, an impossibly cute Korean American woman with a major in Images and a minor in Assertiveness. Could falling in love redeem a planet falling apart?

When his dream of the perfect marriage, the perfect son, and the perfect life implodes, a Wall Street millionaire takes a cross-country bus trip in search of his college sweetheart and ideals of youth in the long-awaited novel, his first in seven years, from the acclaimed, bestselling author of Super Sad True Love Story. Myopic, narcissistic, hilariously self-deluded and divorced from the real world as most of us know it, hedge fund manager Barry Cohen oversees $2.4 billion in assets. Deeply stressed by an SEC investigation and by his 3 year-old-son’s diagnosis of autism, he flees New York on a Greyhound bus in search of a simpler, more romantic life with his old college sweetheart, whom he hasn't seen or spoken to in years. Meanwhile, reeling from the fight that caused Barry's departure, his super-smart wife Seema—a driven first-generation American who craved a picture-perfect life, with all the accoutrements of a huge bank account—has her own demons to face. How these two imperfect characters navigate the Shteyngartian chaos of their own making is the heart of this biting, brilliant, emotionally resonant novel very much of our times.

Eight friends, one country house, four romances, and six months in isolation -- a powerful, emotionally rich novel about love, friendship, and betrayal, a book that reads like a great Russian novel, or Chekhov on the Hudson, by a novelist The New York Times calls "one of his generation's most original and exhilarating writers".It's March 2020 and a calamity is unfolding. A group of friends and friends-of-friends gathers in a country house to wait out the pandemic. Over the next six months new friendships and romances will take hold, while old betrayals will emerge, forcing each character to reevaulate whom they love and what matters most. The unlikely cast of characters include: a Russian-born novelist; his Russian-born psychiatrist wife; their precocious child obsessed with K-pop; a struggling Indian American writer; a wildly successful Korean American app developer; a global dandy with three passports; a young flame-thrower of an essayist, originally from the Carolinas; and a movie star, The Actor, whose arrival upsets the equilibrium of this chosen family. In a remarkable literary feat, Gary Shteyngart has documented through fiction the emotional toll of our recent times: a story of love and friendship that reads like a great Russian novel set in upstate New York. Both elegiac and very, very funny, Our Country Friends is the most ambitious book yet by the author of the beloved bestseller, Super Sad True Love Story.

Open Absurdistan and meet outsize Misha Vainberg, son of the 1,238th-richest man in Russia, lover of large portions of food and drink, lover and inept performer of rap music, and lover of a South Bronx Latina whom he longs to rejoin in New York City, if only the American INS will grant him a visa. But it won't, because Misha's late Beloved Papa whacked an Oklahoma businessman of some prominence. Misha is paying the price of exile from his adopted American homeland. He's stuck in Russia, dreaming of his beloved Rouenna and the Oz of NYC. Salvation may lie in the tiny, oil-rich nation of Absurdistan, where a crooked consular officer will sell Misha a Belgian passport. But after a civil war breaks out between two competing ethnic groups and a local warlord installs hapless Misha as Minister of Multicultural Affairs, our hero soon finds himself covered in oil, fighting for his life, falling in love, and trying to figure out if a normal life is still possible in the twenty-first century. Populated by curvaceous brown-eyed beauties, circumcision-happy Hasidic Jews, a loyal manservant who never stops serving, and scheming oil execs from a certain American company whose name rhymes with Malliburton, Absurdistan is a strange, oddly true-to-life look at how we live now, from a writer who should know.

Shteyngart shares his American immigrant experience, moving back and forth through time and memory with self-deprecating humor, moving insights, and literary bravado. The result is a resonant story of family and belonging that feels epic and intimate and distinctly his own.Born Igor Shteyngart in Leningrad during the twilight of the Soviet Union, the curious, diminutive, asthmatic boy grew up with a persistent sense of yearning—for food, for acceptance, for words—desires that would follow him into adulthood. At five, Igor decided to become a writer, and his grandmother paid him a slice of cheese for every page he produced. He wrote Lenin and His Magical Goose, his first novel.In the late 1970s, world events changed Igor’s life. Jimmy Carter and Leonid Brezhnev made a deal: exchange tankers of grain for the safe passage of Soviet Jews to America—a country Igor viewed as the enemy. Along the way, Igor became Gary so that he would suffer one or two fewer beatings from other kids. Coming to the United States from the Soviet Union was equivalent to stumbling off a monochromatic cliff and landing in a pool of pure Technicolor.Shteyngart’s loving but mismatched parents dreamed that he would become a lawyer or at least a “conscientious toiler” on Wall Street, something their distracted son was simply not cut out to do. Fusing English and Russian, his mother created the term Failurchka—Little Failure—which she applied to her son. With love. Mostly.As a result, Shteyngart operated on a theory that he would fail at everything he tried. At being a writer, at being a boyfriend, and, most important, at being a worthwhile human being.Swinging between a Soviet home life and American aspirations, Shteyngart found himself living in two contradictory worlds, all the while wishing that he could find a real home in one. And somebody to love him. And somebody to lend him sixty-nine cents for a McDonald’s hamburger.Provocative, hilarious, and inventive, Little Failure reveals a deeper vein of emotion in Gary Shteyngart’s prose. It is a memoir of an immigrant family coming to America, as told by a lifelong misfit who forged from his imagination an essential literary voice and, against all odds, a place in the world.

A visionary novel from the author of Super Sad True Love Story and Little Failure.The Russian Debutante's Handbook introduces Vladimir Girshkin, one of the most original and unlikely heroes of recent times. The twenty-five-year-old unhappy lover to a fat dungeon mistress, affectionately nicknamed "Little Failure" by his high-achieving mother, Vladimir toils his days away as a lowly clerk at the bureaucratic Emma Lazarus Immigrant Absorption Society. When a wealthy but psychotic old Russian war hero appears, Vladimir embarks on an adventure of unrelenting lunacy that takes us from New York's Lower East Side to the hip frontier wilderness of Prava--the Eastern European Paris of the nineties. With the help of a murderous but fun-loving Russian mafioso, Vladimir infiltrates the Prava expat community and launches a scheme as ridiculous as it is brilliant.Bursting with wit, humor, and rare insight, The Russian Debutante's Handbook is both a highly imaginative romp and a serious exploration of what it means to be an immigrant in America.

A poignant, sharp-eyed, and bitterly funny tale of a family struggling to stay together in a country rapidly coming apart, told through the eyes of their wondrous ten-year-old daughter, by the bestselling author of Super Sad True Love Story and Our Country FriendsThe Bradford-Shmulkin family is falling apart. A very modern blend of Russian, Jewish, Korean, and New England WASP, they love one another deeply but the pressures of life in an unstable America are fraying their bonds. There's Daddy, a struggling, cash-thirsty editor whose Russian heritage gives him a surprising new currency in the upside-down world of twenty-first-century geopolitics; his wife, Anne Mom, a progressive, underfunded blue blood from Boston who's barely holding the household together; their son, Dylan, whose blond hair and Mayflower lineage provide him pride of place in the newly forming American political order; and, above all, the young Vera, half-Jewish, half-Korean, and wholly original.Observant, sensitive, and always writing down new vocabulary words, Vera wants only three things in life: to make a friend at school; Daddy and Anne Mom to stay together; and to meet her birth mother, Mom Mom, who will at last tell Vera the secret of who she really is and how to ensure love's survival in this great, mad, imploding world.Both biting and deeply moving, Vera, or Faith is a boldly imagined story of family and country told through the clear and tender eyes of a child. With a nod to What Maisie Knew, Henry James's classic story of parents, children, and the dark ironies of a rapidly transforming society, Vera, or Faith demonstrates why Shteyngart is, in the words of The New York Times, "one of his generation's most exhilarating writers."

Heralded as “one of his generation’s most original and exhilarating writers” by The New York Times, Gary Shteyngart has fused his literary chops and biting humor into one-of-a-kind fiction that provokes, inspires, and entertains—sometimes all at once. Throughout the two bestselling novels in this eBook bundle, Absurdistan and Super Sad True Love Story, Shteyngart is at the height of his powers: “wildly funny” (San Francisco Chronicle), “freakishly intelligent” (Elle), “ridiculously witty and painfully prescient” (Time). Don’t miss Gary Shteyngart’s highly anticipated memoir, Little Failure, an American immigrant story of a lifelong misfit who finally finds his place in the world, told with the author’s sharp powers of observation, self-deprecating humor, surprising revelations, and moving insights into the human heart. ABSURDISTAN “Exuberant, wise, hilarious . . . a long, funny, heartbreaking lament for home, whatever that means, and wherever that might be.”—Los Angeles Times Book Review Meet Misha Vainberg, son of the 1,238th-richest man in Russia and a 325-pound patriot of no country save New York City. Misha just wants to live in the South Bronx with his hot Latina girlfriend, but after his gangster father murders an Oklahoma businessman, all hopes of a U.S. visa are lost. Salvation lies in tiny, oil-rich Absurdistan, where a crooked consular officer will sell Misha a Belgian passport. Then civil war breaks out, a local warlord installs Misha as minister of multicultural affairs, and our hero finds himself fighting for his life, falling in love, and trying to figure out if a normal life is still possible in the twenty-first century. SUPER SAD TRUE LOVE STORY “Wonderful . . . [combines] the tenderness of the Chekhovian tradition with the hormonal high jinks of a Judd Apatow movie.”—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times In the near future, America is crushed by a financial crisis, and our patient Chinese creditors may just be ready to foreclose on the whole mess. Then Lenny Abramov, son of a Russian immigrant janitor and ardent fan of “printed, bound media artifacts” (aka books), meets Eunice Park, an impossibly cute and impossibly cruel Korean American woman with a major in Images and a minor in Assertiveness. Could falling in love redeem a planet falling apart? All Lenny has to do is convince his fickle new love that there is still value in being a real human being. Praise for Gary Shteyngart “Compared with most young novelists his age . . . Shteyngart is a giant mounted on horseback. He ranges more widely, sees more sweepingly and gets where he’s going with far more aplomb.”—The New York Times Book Review “Obscenely gifted . . . [His] prose never fails to pop, and nothing escapes his satiric eye.”—Entertainment Weekly “The Joseph Heller of the information age.”—Salon “His imagination is either warped or prophetic; you choose. But his writing is brilliant.”—The Seattle Times “Not since mid-seventies Woody Allen has anyone cracked so wise and so well.”—Esquire “There is no one better at skewering social systems.”—The Wall Street Journal

Short story published in The New Yorker Magazine, excerpt from the book Lake Success.

Toques autobiográficos, humor depreciativo, picardia e uma ponta de melancolia sempre frequentaram os livros do russo radicado nos EUA Gary Shteyngart, um dos mais talentosos romancistas de sua geração. Mas o autor de Absurdistão nunca havia ido tão fundo em suas próprias – e hilárias, desconcertantes – histórias quanto em Fracassinho – Memórias . Da infância em Leningrado à aculturação por meio de programas de TV americanos, passando pelas obsessões sexuais e o fracasso com as mulheres, a trajetória de subempregos, a literatura e, sobretudo, a complexa relação com os pais, o livro foi aclamado pela crítica e alcançou o cobiçado ranking de bestsellers do The New York Times.

Shteyngarts nieuwe roman over de begindagen van de coronapandemie'Shteyngarts beste werk tot nu toe. [...] Onze vrienden is de perfecte roman voor de tijd waarin we nu leven.' The New York TimesMaart 2020. De wereld is in de ban van de pandemie. Een groep vrienden en kennissen komt samen in een vakantiehuis op het Amerikaanse platteland om de onzekere tijd uit te zitten. Onder hen bevinden zich een Russische romancier en een psychiater met hun vroegwijze kind, een Indiaas-Amerikaanse worstelende schrijver, een succesvolle Koreaans-Amerikaanse app-ontwikkelaar, een ijdele wereldreiziger met meerdere nationaliteiten en een gedreven Amerikaanse essayist. Maar wanneer een bevriende filmster, De Acteur, zich bij het bonte gezelschap voegt, worden de bestaande verhoudingen pas echt op scherp gezet. Romances en vriendschappen bloeien op en oud zeer komt plotseling bovendrijven.In deze meesterlijke roman verkent Gary Shteyngart de emotionele impact van een wereld die abrupt tot stilstand komt. Onze vrienden is een tragikomisch verhaal over liefde, vriendschap en verraad, waarin de gouden eeuw van de Russische literatuur weerklinkt in het tumultueuze Amerika van 2020.Over Onze Shteyngart schreef zijn meest ontroerende roman tot nu toe. Een krachtige verhaal over een onwerkelijke tijd.' Salman Rushdie, Booker Prize-auteur van Middernachtskinderen'Gary Shteyngart moeten we koesteren. Zijn werk zit vol humor en hartstocht. Pas wel op met lezen in het dit boek zal je zowel aan het lachen als aan het huilen maken.' Jonathan Safran Foer, auteur van o.a. Alles is verlicht'Tegen de achtergrond van de pandemie brengt Gary Shteyngart zijn memorabele personages samen in een gemoedelijk onderkomen, waar ze koken, verleiden en het leven overdenken.' Min Jin Lee, auteur van Pachinko'Er is geen relevantere roman voor deze tijd dan deze en zeker niet met zulke mooie beschrijvingen, emoties en – zoals altijd – humor. Gary Shteyngart heeft een meesterwerk geschreven.' Andrew Sean Greer, Pulitzer Prize-auteur van De glorieuze reis van Arthur Less

Das populärste Buch des großen amerikanischen Erzä Ein Haus auf dem Land, acht Freunde, vier Romanzen und sechs Monate in IsolationEs ist März 2020, und eine uns wohlvertraute Katastrophe zieht am Horizont auf. In einem idyllischen Landhaus außerhalb von New York versammelt der russischstämmige Schriftsteller Sasha Senderovsky eine illustre Gruppe alter Freunde und loser Bekanntschaften, um die Pandemie bei gutem Essen und anregenden Gesprächen auszusitzen. Über die nächsten Monate wachsen neue Freund- und Liebschaften, während sich längst vergessen geglaubte Kränkungen mit frischer Kraft manifestieren. Doch mit der Ankunft eines mythenumwobenen Hollywoodstars gerät das mühsam konstruierte Gleichgewicht dieser Wahlfamilie gefährlich ins Wanken ...Eine ungemein zeitgenössische Geschichte, erzählt mit der Haltung eines großen Shteyngart dokumentiert die singuläre Gefühls- und Erlebniswelt des Jahres 2020 und verpackt sie in einen süffig-intelligenten Roman, der Erinnerungen an Boccaccios »Dekameron« und die großen Klassiker der russischen Literatur durchscheinen lässt – versetzt ins Amerika der Gegenwart.»Gary Shteyngarts Romane sind amerikanisches Kulturgut. Er hat schon immer mit Humor und Herz geschrieben, aber nie so sehr wie hier. Wenn Sie dieses Buch in der Öffentlichkeit lesen, seien Sie bloß Es kann sein, dass sie laut loslachen müssen – oder dass Ihnen die Tränen kommen.« Jonathan Safran Foer

Bissig, brandaktuell, berührend - eine turbulente Reise durch das gespaltene Amerika der Vor-Trump-ÄraDer Wall-Street-Millionär Barry Cohen führt ein perfektes Leben. Doch als er erfährt, dass sein Sohn autistisch ist und dann auch noch eine Untersuchung der Börsenaufsicht gegen ihn eingeleitet wird, packt er seine geliebte Uhrensammlung in einen Rollkoffer und macht sich auf den Weg. Sein irrwitziger nach zwanzig Jahren seine College-Liebe Layla wiederzutreffen – in der Hoffnung, mit ihr das einfachere, ehrlichere Leben von damals fortzuführen.In diesem Great American Novel nimmt uns Bestsellerautor Gary Shteyngart mit auf eine turbulente Reise durch das gespaltene Amerika der Vor-Trump-Ära. Bissig, brandaktuell, berührend!

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The author of Super Sad True Love Story presents his new memoir, a seriously hilarious exploration of his life so far.

«Shteyngart è un tesoro nazionale.»Jonathan Safran Foer«Nel suo vortice di emozioni, nel suo umorismo e nel suo pathos, nell'umanità spietata della sua visione, questo libro è come una creatura favolosa che è stata fatta uscire dalla bottiglia. »Michael Cunningham«Un talento pungente, leggero, insolente, malinconico.»The New York Times «Una favola brillante sull'infanzia e molto di più, nel nostro Paese devastato... Shteyngart ha dato vita al suo romanzo più importante, illuminando la tragedia del contesto attuale con umorismo, intelligenza e cuore.»Kirkus Reviews«Un eccezionale narratore di imperfezioni indimenticabili»The TimesAttraverso le parole di una bambina di dieci anni dall’intelligenza fuori dal comune, conosciamo la famiglia Bradford-Shmulkin – un mix di radici russe, ebraiche, coreane e WASP – mentre sta per andare in pezzi.C’è il papà, redattore in crisi di una rivista ancora più in crisi, alla disperata ricerca di un finanziatore; la sua seconda moglie Anne, ricca progressista di Boston impegnata nelle raccolte fondi più che a tenere insieme la famiglia; il loro figlio Dylan, un angioletto biondo decisamente meno dotato della sorella ma «super bianco». E infine c’è lei, metà ebrea, metà coreana e un totale fallimento. Sarà anche una cervellona destinata a diventare «luminare delle scienze», ma al momento è senza uno straccio di amico (a parte Kaspie, l’intelligenza artificiale con cui gioca a scacchi), senza una «mamma mamma» e senza un futuro. Se vuole uscire da questa situazione, ha tre missioni da tenere in piedi il matrimonio dei genitori, fare pace con le sue origini e magari mettere insieme il coraggio per parlare con i suoi compagni di scuola...Non sarà facile trovare il proprio posto in una società ipercompetitiva e dilaniata dalle contraddizioni, ma un passo alla volta Vera dovrà cercare di capire chi è e quel che conta davvero per lei nella vita.

Uma abordagem cômica e sensível da Pandemia de 2020 a cargo de um dos mais engenhosos ficcionistas norte-americanos. Um grupo de amigos passa uma temporada numa propriedade rural; em algum ponto dos Estados Unidos; durante a pandemia. Os anfitriões; ambos imigrantes russos de meia idade; são um escritor com o prestígio em declínio e sua esposa psiquiatra; que enfrenta problemas no casamento e na relação com a filha. Entre os convidados estão um ator bonito e egocêntrico; uma jovem intelectual ambiciosa; um ex-professor de origem indiana recuperado de um câncer e uma coreana-americana que ficou milionária ao criar um aplicativo de relacionamentos. Com Gary Shteyngart; no entanto; os rótulos são mais fluidos. Um dos mais originais escritores em atividade; acrescenta a modelos literários reconhecíveis um tom mais raro do que parece na ficção de algo entre o humor cínico; enfastiado com o excesso de informações do século XXI; e a agudez na construção de personagens sólidos — tanto em seus dramas particulares quanto naquilo que podem representar na sociedade. Assim; a esperteza dos diálogos do livro remete à frivolidade de uma classe privilegiada; e o hedonismo possível nas circunstâncias do enredo — as longas bebedeiras; os flertes discretos ou abertos — se liga à morte durante uma emergência sanitária. Num sinal duplo contínuo; a vivacidade das cenas entre quatro paredes ajuda a entender o mundo fora daqueles limites; o mesmo que caminha para o horror político e ambiental. Como sair desses impasses tão familiares; inclusive no Brasil? Partindo da "bolsa velha de lantejoulas" que é o coração de cada personagem; a resposta dada por Nossos amigos do campo é de uma riqueza humana singular."As qualidades do romance são abundantes. Ele subverte clichês; piedades e lugares-comuns; ao mesmo tempo em que observa detalhes marcantes do confinamento." The New York Times"Gary Shteyngart é um tesouro nacional. Ele sempre escreveu com muito humor e sensibilidade; mas nunca tanto quanto aqui. Tome cuidado ao ler este livro em pú é tão provável que ele o faça rir em voz alta quanto chorar." Jonathan Safran Foer "É um prazer mergulhar no modo expansivo e generoso como Shteyngart conta histórias" — Sunday Times