Novelist Gary Shteyngart on his memoir, “Little Failure”

Hour Two

Guest: Gary Shteyngart

[From the Radio Times archive] Igor Shteyngart was born in Leningrad in the 70s and moved to his native country’s enemy, the United States, in 1979. His parents uprooted their Russian lives for their son to have an opportunity to have a better life and changed his name to Gary, so he would have an easier time assimilating in school. Critically acclaimed novelist and essayist GARY SHTEYNGART’s new memoir is called Little Failure, a nickname his mother gave him after he couldn’t get into an Ivy League College. The “Failurchka’s” work has earned Shteyngart literary prizes and his books have been translated into 28 languages.