Gary Shteyngart

Gary Shteyngart was born in Leningrad in 1972 and came to the United States seven years later. He spent his first years in exile writing a satire of the Jewish Torah called The Gnorah, which received mixed reviews at his Hebrew primary school. He is also the author of the novels Absurdistan (Granta Books/Random House) and The Russian Debutante's Handbook (Bloomsbury/ Riverhead). Absurdistan was chosen as one of the ten best books of the year by the New York Times Book Review in 2006. He first appeared in Granta with 'Several Anecdotes about My Wife' in Granta 78. He lives on New York's Lower East Side in an apartment building that 'sadly does not allow long-haired dachshunds'. 'From the Diaries of Lenny Abramov' is taken from a novel-in-progress.