by Gary Shteyngart

Misha Vainberg, a young fat rich Russian 'migr', finds himself trapped in his hated homeland, exiled from his ghetto girlfriend Rouenna and all the glorious excesses of New York City. His quest for a U.S. visa takes him to Absurdistan, a tiny former Soviet-bloc country mired in ethnic tensions, and before he knows it, a local warlord has made him the Minister of Multicultural Affairs. Meanwhile, back in New York, a lecherous professor (with a striking resemblance to the novel's author) has begun to put the moves on Rouenna. As in his explosive debut, THE RUSSIAN DEBUTANTE'S HANDBOOK, Gary Shteyngart writes with audacity and verve. Using the lazy and bombastic Misha as his mouthpiece, Shteyngart romps in the absurdity of the globalized world: the spread of rap and fast food, profiteering Halliburton-esque corporations, and the collision of old-world bigotry with the preposterous new-world disorder.