Introduction

Hello from a pandemic bungalow!

This week, we are joined by Gary Shteyngart, creator of the brilliant new novel, Our Country Friends. We talk about immigrant fiction, elite high schools, exile feelings, the Asian pop-cultural future, and Gary’s run-in with a fascist elementary school teacher.

Gary is the author of the memoir Little Failure (2014) and four previous novels: Super Sad True Love Story (2010), Lake Success (2018), Absurdistan (2007), and The Russian Debutante’s Handbook (2002). Also check out his recent essay in The New Yorker, “A Botched Circumcision and Its Aftermath.”

Photo credit: Tim Davis

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