Little Failure
A memoir
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Penguin Books Ltd
Published:1st Jan '15
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
Reveals how, by ending up a prize-winning novelist, the author visited great shame on his family.
Little Failure is Gary Shteyngart's bestselling and very funny memoir.
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
In 1979 seven-year-old Gary Shteyngart and his parents left the Soviet Union for the consumerist paradise of America. As good Russian Jews, Gary's parents were determined that he make something of himself. As a diminutive asthmatic with a runny nose, Gary knew his was to be a life of spectacular disappointments. He wasn't wrong. In Little Failure he reveals how, by ending up a prize-winning novelist, he visited great shame on his family.
'Dazzling, exquisitely charted. Time spent with Shteyngart is like being with Woody Allen on speed: razor-sharp, funny and deeply moving' Mail on Sunday
'A marvel of a story. His finest book yet' Zadie Smith
'An immigrant story, a coming-of-age story, a becoming-a-writer story. Dazzling' Meg Wolitzer
Gary Shteyngart was born in Leningrad in 1972. In 2007 he was named one of Granta's Best Young American novelists. His debut The Russian Debutante's Handbook was widely acclaimed (and won the National Jewish Book Award for Fiction), as were his second, Absurdistan (one of the 10 Best Books of the Year in the New York Times) and Super Sad True Love Story (which won the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize).
A memoir for the ages ... Un-put-down-able ... Little Failure is his best book to date -- Mary Karr, author of The Liars' Club
One of America's most exciting writers * Guardian *
Shteyngart has carried the spirit of Russian literature into the iPhones, subways and suburbs of America * Financial Times *
A marvel of a story. His finest book yet. -- Zadie Smith
People who think Gary Shteyngart is a very funny man and a complete pervert are in for a shock by the time they finish this memoir: he turns out to be a very complete man and a funny pervert. Little Failure is a delight -- Aravind Adiga
I'm always wary when a young writer offers up a memoir, but Gary Shteyngart delivers big-time with Little Failure. His family's story is quite remarkable, and it's told with fearlessness, wisdom and the wit that you'd expect from one of America's funniest novelists -- Carl Hiaasen
If you, like me, have often wondered: How did Gary Shteyngart get like that? Little Failure is the heartfelt, moving, and truly engaging memoir that explains it all. Dr. Freud would be proud -- Nathan Englander
Portnoy meets Chekhov meets Shteyngart! What could be better? -- Adam Gopnik
Hilarious, moving, compelling . . . Thanks to Little Failure, the army of readers who love Gary Shteyngart is about to get bigger * The New York Times *
Little Failure finds the delicate balance between side-splitting and heart-breaking * Oprah Magazine *
ISBN: 9780241971987
Dimensions: 198mm x 129mm x 22mm
Weight: 255g
368 pages