A profound and dazzlingly entertaining novel from the writer Louis
Menand calls Jane Austen with a Russian soul
In her warm, absorbing and keenly observed new novel, Lara Vapnyar
follows the intertwined lives of four immigrants in New York City as
they grapple with love and tumult, the challenges of a new home, and the
absurdities of the digital age.
Vica, Vadik, Sergey and Regina met in Russia in their school days, but
remained in touch and now have very different American lives. Sergey
cycles through jobs as an analyst, hoping his idea for an app will
finally bring him success. His wife Vica, a medical technician
struggling to keep her family afloat, hungers for a better life.
Sergey's former girlfriend Regina, once a famous translator is married
to a wealthy startup owner, spends her days at home grieving over a
recent loss. Sergey's best friend Vadik, a programmer ever in search of
perfection, keeps trying on different women and different neighborhoods,
all while pining for the one who got away.
As Sergey develops his app--calling it Virtual Grave, a program to
preserve a person's online presence after death--a formidable debate
begins in the group, spurring questions about the changing perception of
death in the modern world and the future of our virtual selves. How do
our online personas define us in our daily lives, and what will they say
about us when we're gone?
-- New York Times Book Review, 100 Notable Books of 2016
