Still Here: A Novel

(Paperback)

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A profound, warm and sparklingly entertaining novel from the writer Louis Menand calls "Jane Austen with a Russian soul", now in paperback Set in a contemporary New York City enamored with technology, Still Here follows the shifting fortunes of four ambitious emigres, each at a critical point in life. Sergey, formerly a brilliant linguist in Russia, cycles through jobs as an analyst, hoping his idea for a new app - a program that will preserve a person's online presence after death - will finally bring him success. Sergey's 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 and now married to a wealthy startup owner, spends her days grieving a recent loss, getting addicted to TV and takeout. Sergey's best friend Vadik, a programmer ever in search of the fitting lifestyle, keeps trying on different women and different New York neighborhoods, all while pining for the lost love of his life. As Sergey develops his app (which he's calling "Virtual Grave") and searches for investors, 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. What do we do with our digital legacy How do our online personas define us in our daily lives, and what will they say about us when we're gone In an absorbing and sharply observed tale marked with wry humor and pathos, acclaimed author Lara Vapnyar charts the striking trajectories of her four characters as they grapple with the challenges of their careers, loves lives, marriages, parenthood, the confusion of contemporary America and the absurdities of the digital age.

Reviews

Praise for Still Here:

Still Hereis flat-out wonderful, the work of a generous imagination that overflows with stories, some humorous, others heartbreaking, all resonant. The novel is timely in its trenchant dissection of technology and post-recession America, yet classic in its evocation of love and death, ambition and identity, families and friendships forged and broken. Lara Vapnyars quartet of Russian strivers are so luminous on the page, they continued to glow in my mind well past the final sentence." -- Anthony Marra, New York Times bestselling author of The Tsar of Love and Techno and A Constellation of Vital Phenomena

"...minutely observed, razor funny and wholly wonderful." --New York Times Book Review

A brisk and amusing reboot of the familiar immigrant tale...think Friends with a heavy Russian accent. --Wall Street Journal

"[Still Here] provides a lively view of a group of friends navigating their early 40s, juggling mistakes of their past and trying to remain hopeful about the future. Once again, Vapnyar illustrates her incredible ability to create rich and entertaining narratives." --Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"[A] piercing novel about the absurdities of the digital age, Still Here is also the finest kind of comedy of manners, as much a snapshot of how we live now as were the 19th-century novels of Anthony Trollope and George Eliot. --BookPage


Praise for Lara Vapnyar's Previous Works:

The Scent of Pine:

"[With] a buoyant wit, a sharp-edged Russian melancholy, a fascination with outsiders who long to be insiders and a blunt reckoning with the costs of that transition for those who achieve it. This slender but provocative novel advances those concerns, skillfully questioning the notion that age brings wisdom, at least in matters of the heart." --New York Times Book Review

"Ms. Vapnyar has shown herself to be exquisitely sensitive to the shifting vagaries of emotion, particularly happiness...Enchanting." --New York Times


"Sharply observed, darkly humorous, and sexy, Vapnyar weaves her tale of mid-life crisis and coming-of-age like a modern-day, Russian Scheherazade."--Tatjana Soli New York Times bestselling author of The Lotus Eaters

"[Vapnyar has] an impressive gift, not just of language, but of insight into the human condition."--The Boston Globe

"[Vapnyar's] wistful and waggish account of disappointments in friendship, sex, and love is closer in spirit to Anton Chekhov, who, remaining in Russia, captured the universal melancholy of human mortality." --Christian Science Monitor

There Are Jews in My House:

"A remarkable collection...Eerie in its simplicity, stunning in its scope. Through her tender, insightful writing, Vapnyar's characters, battered by history and each other, emerge from the long Soviet night oddly radiant and whole." --Gary Shteyngart

"Lara Vapnyar is Jane Austen with a Russian soul. The blend of coolness and pathos in these perfect stories is uncanny." --Louis Menand

Prepare yourself for radiance.New York Observer

"These finely etched stories glow with the life-giving force of language newly acquired." --Time Out New York

"Shot through with coolly rendered details of exquisite beauty...Relish this small gem and hope for more." --San Francisco Chronicle

"Superbly written tales that continue the tradition of Russian realism.... One feels that a season is changing and the future has arrived." --Washington Times

"Vapnyar's ambition, purity of prose, and gift for concentrated emotion make this collection a standout--and the first move in what promises to be a long and interesting career." --Hartford Courant

"A feat of linguistic achievement. Not only is [Vapnyar's] prose stark and carved in its fresh foreignness, but her stories have the quality of memoir, which lends a naturalness to her subjects.... You must read these stories or have them read to you." --Los Angeles Times

"Beautifully wrought tales...Nuanced and deftly written...Superb." --Baltimore Sun

"There Are Jews in My House has an exciting flawlessness, like a perfectly cut stone.... This book should become one of those slender classics, beloved especially among those who thrill to find the old-fashioned short story made so richly and authentically new." --O: The Oprah Magazine

"Vapnyar draws an indelible portrait of the land she left behind. . . . [She] conjures a country that is both alluring and oppressive and induces longing and dismay in equal parts." --The New York Times Book Review

"Richly written...[Vapnyar's] gift is capturing zigzag lives, alternate realities, the messy imperfection of people as they struggle to find a path." --Miami Herald

"Vapnyar's sensitive descriptions of Russian life here and abroad make her a writer to watch." --Dallas Morning News

Powerful . . . Vapnyar seems to be establishing her own more expansive freedom.The New York Times

Stealthily engrossing, graceful prose . . . This lovely collection very effectively captures the small moments that tell what it is to be human.Minneapolis Star Tribune

"Reading the stories in There Are Jews in My House is a bit like what it might have been like to look over Tolstoy's shoulder while he examined a blade of grass, then another. In Vapnyar's fiction, details jut, simple and bright, until they pose a world." --Chicago Tribune

Broccoli and Other Tales of Food and Love:

"Poignant, piquant, and mischievously amusing." --Wall Street Journal

"Elegant...In these stories, food has the power to define characters, propel plots, cause riots, and even commit manslaughter." --New York Times

"The comedy of these amusing character studies would, perhaps, have delighted Chekhov.... With Vapnyar, we're seeing the weird and wonderful development of a sophisticated artist." --SanFrancisco Chronicle

"Charming...The stories come alive, inviting the reader to explore the kitchen tables and anxious stomachs of the characters." --New York Observer

Memoirs of a Muse:

Beautifully observant and funny. . . . It's already easy to identify that Vapnyar touch, and to fall under its spell.Entertainment Weekly

So good, so consistently fresh, funny, and surprising, that every sentence is a pleasure.San Francisco Chronicle

[Vapnyar] is clearly a talented writer, possessed of an ample humor and insight and a humane sensibility.The New York Times Book Review

Hilarious . . . [Vapnyars] eye for the absurd remains sharp . . . An immensely talented storyteller.Vogue

Author Bio

LARA VAPNYAR moved from Moscow to Brooklyn in 1994. She lives in New York City with her family. Still Here is her third novel.