Picture 1 of 1
Stock photo
Picture 1 of 1
Stock photo
Terrible Country by Keith Gessen (2018, Hardcover)
retzb777 (5687)
100% positive feedback
Price:
$6.48
+ $5.22 shipping
Returns:
30 days returns. Buyer pays for return shipping. If you use an eBay shipping label, it will be deducted from your refund amount.
Condition:
- Buy It NowA Terrible Country: A Novel by in New
Oops! Looks like we're having trouble connecting to our server.
Refresh your browser window to try again.
About this product
Product Identifiers
PublisherPenguin Publishing Group
ISBN-100735221316
ISBN-139780735221314
eBay Product ID (ePID)240427261
Product Key Features
Book TitleTerrible Country
Number of Pages352 Pages
LanguageEnglish
Publication Year2018
TopicFamily Life, Satire, Literary, Political
GenreFiction
AuthorKeith Gessen
FormatHardcover
Dimensions
Item Height1.2 in
Item Weight19.2 Oz
Item Length9.3 in
Item Width6.2 in
Additional Product Features
Intended AudienceTrade
LCCN2018-025065
TitleLeadingA
ReviewsPraise for A Terrible Country " A Terrible Country is an engaging and entertaining novel, full of humor and humility, and always after one thing--the truth of contemporary life. Gessen gives us the people of Moscow--businessmen, anarchists, grandmothers, dissidents, baristas, hockey goalies, prostitutes, and FSB agents--not as fanciful characters but with the full force of the real. His affectionate, clear-eyed portrait of one terrible country has plenty to teach us about our own." --Chad Harbach, author of The Art of Fielding "Keith Gessen is one of my favorite writers and A Terrible Country is even better than I hoped. By turns sad, funny, bewildering, revelatory, and then sad again, it recreates the historical-psychological experience of returning, for twenty-first-century reasons, to a country one''s parents left in the twentieth century. It''s at once an old-fashioned novel about the interplay between generational roles, family fates, and political ideology, and a kind of global detective mystery about neoliberalism (plus a secret map of Moscow in terms of pickup hockey). Gessen is a master journalist and essayist, as well as a storyteller with a scary grasp on the human heartstrings, and A Terrible Country unites the personal and political as only the best novels do." --Elif Batuman, author of The Idiot and The Possessed "Like Primo Levi''s masterpiece If Not Now, When? , A Terrible Country makes the emotional case for an unfamiliar politics. Its critique of the Russian mafia state is balanced by a deeply humanistic attention to common decency. I would not hesitate to recommend this novel to a busy person who otherwise refuses to touch fiction. The only up-to-the-minute, topical, relevant, and necessary novel of 2018 that never has to mention Trump." --Nell Zink, author of The Wallcreeper and Mislaid Praise for All the Sad Young Literary Men "Mordantly funny, and frequently poignant. . . . In this debut novel there is much that is charming and beguiling, and much promise." --Joyce Carol Oates, The New York Review of Books "Gessen proves himself not only a capable observer but a natural novelist with a warm gun . . . [and] a nice comic sureness. . . . Gessen''s style is good-natured and ripe enough to allow a satisfying sweetness to exist in these characters." --Andrew O''Hagan, The New York Times Book Review "Gessen is shrewd, funny, and oddly compassionate. (A-)" -- Entertainment Weekly "This interesting and agreeable first novel . . . can be good entertainment for readers, as the saying goes, of all ages . . . . Gessen has a deft satiric touch and a nice feel for irony." --Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post "Cruelty and affection and erudition and innocence are so perfectly balanced in these stories, they almost make me wish I were young again." --Jonathan Franzen "Before age 30, Gessen made his mark as a public intellectual and literary critic. But his artistic debut may dwarf those other, considerable contributions. Gessen''s fiction teases out subtle insights into travails both political and romantic, and with powerful humor. Heaven will take note." --Mary Karr "Every generation has its clever young men, and Keith Gessen must be counted among his. . . . One of the pleasures of Gessen''s novel is how well he produces the speech patterns of brainy, left-wing Ivy Leaguers--their sardonic deployment of social-theoretical jargon, their riffs on technology and capitalism, their anxiety about status." --Judith Schulevitz, Slate.com "Humorous and compassionate. . . . An invigorating first novel." -- The Cleveland Plain Dealer "A fiercely intelligent, darkly funny first novel." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Dewey Edition23
Dewey Decimal813/.6
SynopsisA New York Times Editors' Choice Named a Best Book of 2018 by Bookforum , Nylon , Esquire , and Vulture "This artful and autumnal novel, published in high summer, is a gift to those who wish to receive it." --Dwight Garner, The New York Times "Hilarious, heartbreaking . . . A Terrible Country may be one of the best books you'll read this year." --Ann Levin, Associated Press "The funniest work of fiction I've read this year." --Christian Lorentzen, Vulture.com A literary triumph about Russia, family, love, and loyalty--the first novel in ten years from a founding editor of n+1 and author of All the Sad Young Literary Men When Andrei Kaplan's older brother Dima insists that Andrei return to Moscow to care for their ailing grandmother, Andrei must take stock of his life in New York. His girlfriend has stopped returning his text messages. His dissertation adviser is dubious about his job prospects. It's the summer of 2008, and his bank account is running dangerously low. Perhaps a few months in Moscow are just what he needs. So Andrei sublets his room in Brooklyn, packs up his hockey stuff, and moves into the apartment that Stalin himself had given his grandmother, a woman who has outlived her husband and most of her friends. She survived the dark days of communism and witnessed Russia's violent capitalist transformation, during which she lost her beloved dacha. She welcomes Andrei into her home, even if she can't always remember who he is. Andrei learns to navigate Putin's Moscow, still the city of his birth, but with more expensive coffee. He looks after his elderly--but surprisingly sharp!--grandmother, finds a place to play hockey, a café to send emails, and eventually some friends, including a beautiful young activist named Yulia. Over the course of the year, his grandmother's health declines and his feelings of dislocation from both Russia and America deepen. Andrei knows he must reckon with his future and make choices that will determine his life and fate. When he becomes entangled with a group of leftists, Andrei's politics and his allegiances are tested, and he is forced to come to terms with the Russian society he was born into and the American one he has enjoyed since he was a kid. A wise, sensitive novel about Russia, exile, family, love, history and fate, A Terrible County asks what you owe the place you were born, and what it owes you. Writing with grace and humor, Keith Gessen gives us a brilliant and mature novel that is sure to mark him as one of the most talented novelists of his generation., A New York Times Editors' Choice Named a Best Book of 2018 by Bookforum , Nylon , Esquire , and Vulture "This artful and autumnal novel, published in high summer, is a gift to those who wish to receive it." --Dwight Garner, The New York Times "Hilarious, heartbreaking . . . A Terrible Country may be one of the best books you'll read this year." --Ann Levin, Associated Press "The funniest work of fiction I've read this year." --Christian Lorentzen, Vulture.com A literary triumph about Russia, family, love, and loyalty--the first novel in ten years from a founding editor of n+1 and author of All the Sad Young Literary Men When Andrei Kaplan's older brother Dima insists that Andrei return to Moscow to care for their ailing grandmother, Andrei must take stock of his life in New York. His girlfriend has stopped returning his text messages. His dissertation adviser is dubious about his job prospects. It's the summer of 2008, and his bank account is running dangerously low. Perhaps a few months in Moscow are just what he needs. So Andrei sublets his room in Brooklyn, packs up his hockey stuff, and moves into the apartment that Stalin himself had given his grandmother, a woman who has outlived her husband and most of her friends. She survived the dark days of communism and witnessed Russia's violent capitalist transformation, during which she lost her beloved dacha. She welcomes Andrei into her home, even if she can't always remember who he is. Andrei learns to navigate Putin's Moscow, still the city of his birth, but with more expensive coffee. He looks after his elderly--but surprisingly sharp --grandmother, finds a place to play hockey, a caf to send emails, and eventually some friends, including a beautiful young activist named Yulia. Over the course of the year, his grandmother's health declines and his feelings of dislocation from both Russia and America deepen. Andrei knows he must reckon with his future and make choices that will determine his life and fate. When he becomes entangled with a group of leftists, Andrei's politics and his allegiances are tested, and he is forced to come to terms with the Russian society he was born into and the American one he has enjoyed since he was a kid. A wise, sensitive novel about Russia, exile, family, love, history and fate, A Terrible County asks what you owe the place you were born, and what it owes you. Writing with grace and humor, Keith Gessen gives us a brilliant and mature novel that is sure to mark him as one of the most talented novelists of his generation.
LC Classification NumberPS3607.E87T47 2018
All listings for this product
Ratings and Reviews
Most relevant reviews
- Sep 05, 2018
Good Read
What I’ve read so far it is going to be a good read.Verified purchase: YesCondition: Pre-owned
