Absurdistan

Novelist Gary Shteyngart immigrated to the United States from Leningrad , of the former Soviet Union, when he was seven years old. While he was growing up in the USA, his home country was breaking up - from the exhausted Soviet Union into wild and woolly post-Soviet disunion.

Gangsters, crime, illicit fortunes and oligarchs were popping all over after the post-Soviet breakup — and Gary Shteyngart kept watching. In 2002, he came out with his bestselling first novel, "The Russian Debutante's Handbook." Now he's back with "Absurdistan" — a raucous satire of globe-circling American dreams playing out, absurdly, in a post-Soviet kleptocracy.

Hear Novelist Gary Shteyngart talk about "gangsta-rap, dirty money, cock-eyed dreams and his new novel "Absurdistan."

Guests:

Gary Shteyngart, author of the new book "Absurdistan."