On Demand:

GARY SHTEYNGART was born in the former Leningrad, Russia, in 1972 and came to the United States seven years later. His first novel, The Russian Debutante’s Handbook, won the Stephen Crane Award for First Fiction and the National Jewish Book Award for Fiction. His second novel, Absurdistan, was one of The New York Times Book Review’s 10 best books of the year. His novel Super Sad True Love Story won the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize and became one of the most iconic novels of the decade. His memoir, Little Failure, was a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist. He is also the author of The New York Times’ bestseller Our Country Friends. His books have been published in 30 countries. Vera, or Faith: A Novel (Random House) is his latest book.

ED PARK is the author of the novels Same Bed Different Dreams, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction, and Personal Days, a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award. He is a founding editor of The Believer and has worked in newspapers, book publishing, and academia. His writing appears in The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, Harper’s Magazine, The Atlantic, and elsewhere. Born in Buffalo, New York, he lives in Manhattan with his family.

IDDO GEFEN is an author and a Ph.D. student in cognitive neuroscience at Columbia University, currently based in New York. His research explores the intricate relationship between narrative understanding, human memory, and decision-making. His debut short story collection, Jerusalem Beach: Stories, won the 2023 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature. One of the stories from the book is currently being adapted into a film by General Admission, actor Ryan Gosling’s production company.