Our Country Friends: A Novel
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • GOOD MORNING AMERICA BUZZ PICK • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, Financial Times, The Washington Post, Time, Los Angeles Times, New York Post, Town & Country, Good Housekeeping, Kirkus Reviews
Finalist for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction • Longlisted for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize • “A perfect novel for these times and all times, the single textual artifact from the pandemic era I would place in a time capsule as a representation of all that is good and true and beautiful about literature.”—Molly Young, The New York Times (Editors’ Choice)
Eight friends, one country house, and six months in isolation—a novel about love, friendship, family, and betrayal hailed as a “virtuoso performance” (USA Today) and “an homage to Chekhov with four romances and a finale that will break your heart” (The Washington Post)
In the rolling hills of upstate New York, 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 reevaluate whom they love and what matters most. The unlikely cast of characters includes 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 Southern flamethrower of an essayist; and a movie star, the Actor, whose arrival upsets the equilibrium of this chosen family.
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.
Finalist for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction • Longlisted for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize • “A perfect novel for these times and all times, the single textual artifact from the pandemic era I would place in a time capsule as a representation of all that is good and true and beautiful about literature.”—Molly Young, The New York Times (Editors’ Choice)
Eight friends, one country house, and six months in isolation—a novel about love, friendship, family, and betrayal hailed as a “virtuoso performance” (USA Today) and “an homage to Chekhov with four romances and a finale that will break your heart” (The Washington Post)
In the rolling hills of upstate New York, 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 reevaluate whom they love and what matters most. The unlikely cast of characters includes 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 Southern flamethrower of an essayist; and a movie star, the Actor, whose arrival upsets the equilibrium of this chosen family.
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.
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What’s it about?
In the spring of 2020 a group of old friends gather at a rural compound in upstate New York to wait out the new pandemic that has hit the country. Sasha, Karen, and Vinod went to high school together and bonded over their shared immigrant experiences. Almost thirty years later they gather together again (with new friends and old history) to make their way through another chapter in their lives. As always they rely on each other, hurt each other, and love each other.
What did it make me think about?
Love- in all it’s various forms.
Should I read it?
Yes, you should read this- but not everyone is going to enjoy it… This thoroughly Russian novel cleverly uses the time of the pandemic to shine a light on our ever-changing America, love, friendship,and what a shared history can mean to people. How insightful to take a time where we were all cooped up together, and on unsure footing, to explore these themes. Gary Shteyngart is an immensely talented writer but I often admired this book more than I loved this book. By the end of the novel I was surprised to find that I was going to miss these characters- so I may have loved this book more than I realized. If I could just discuss this novel with someone there is a very good chance it will be one of my favorites this year. In the meantime, I will keep ruminating over Sasha, Masha, Nat, Karen, Vinod, Ed, Dee, and The Actor- and isn’t that the mark of a good story?
Quote-
“Alcohol is the gift of any narration, and any writer thrills to the thwop of a corkscrew being pulled. Now the protagonists will reveal themselves. Now there will be unchecked laughter and love. Now the principals will flirt and be cruelly rebuffed, and the loveless will sigh into their cups and try to remember what it was like to be wanted.”
What’s it about?
In the spring of 2020 a group of old friends gather at a rural compound in upstate New York to wait out the new pandemic that has hit the country. Sasha, Karen, and Vinod went to high school together and bonded over their shared immigrant experiences. Almost thirty years later they gather together again (with new friends and old history) to make their way through another chapter in their lives. As always they rely on each other, hurt each other, and love each other.
What did it make me think about?
Love- in all it’s various forms.
Should I read it?
Yes, you should read this- but not everyone is going to enjoy it… This thoroughly Russian novel cleverly uses the time of the pandemic to shine a light on our ever-changing America, love, friendship,and what a shared history can mean to people. How insightful to take a time where we were all cooped up together, and on unsure footing, to explore these themes. Gary Shteyngart is an immensely talented writer but I often admired this book more than I loved this book. By the end of the novel I was surprised to find that I was going to miss these characters- so I may have loved this book more than I realized. If I could just discuss this novel with someone there is a very good chance it will be one of my favorites this year. In the meantime, I will keep ruminating over Sasha, Masha, Nat, Karen, Vinod, Ed, Dee, and The Actor- and isn’t that the mark of a good story?
Quote-
“Alcohol is the gift of any narration, and any writer thrills to the thwop of a corkscrew being pulled. Now the protagonists will reveal themselves. Now there will be unchecked laughter and love. Now the principals will flirt and be cruelly rebuffed, and the loveless will sigh into their cups and try to remember what it was like to be wanted.”
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