Super Sad True Love Story (40 page)

Authors: Gary Shteyngart

Tags: #Fiction, #General, #Love stories, #Fiction - General, #American Contemporary Fiction - Individual Authors +, #Satire, #Dystopias

BOOK: Super Sad True Love Story

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Writing a book is real hard and lonely, let me tell you. I am so grateful that I have a generous group of readers who lift up their red pens and challenge me to do better.

David Ebershoff’s editing of the many drafts of this book was truly heroic. Here is that rare find, an editor who is also a brilliant author, brimming with emotional intelligence and real love for our old dear friend, the sentence. Denise Shannon has been a great agent and terrific reader for over a decade, through tales of immigrant angst, fat gangster sons, and now this. Sara Holloway of
Granta
offered thoughtful advice carrier-pigeoned across the Atlantic. And any Random House author who has Jynne Martin on their case is lucky indeed.

I want to thank my research assistant, Alex Gilvarry, for helping me understand how science works. (Apparently we’re all made up of many cells.) He has helped me burrow into the works of two thinkers who have influenced this volume: Ray Kurzweil, author of, among many books,
The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology
and
Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever
, and Aubrey de Grey, author of
Ending Aging: The Rejuvenation Breakthrough That Could Reverse Human Aging in Our Lifetime
.

The American Academy in Berlin, the Civitella Ranieri Center in Umbria, Italy, and the Corporation of Yaddo have all given me splendid shelter and mouthwatering fare.

There are so many dear people who have gone through the numerous drafts of this book. I know I’m leaving out at least a half-dozen of them, but that’s only because my memory has taken a beating over the years. For everyone who has helped me with this book, please accept my love and gratitude. Among them: Elisa Albert, Doug Choi, Adrienne Day, Joshua Ferris, Rebecca Godfrey, David Grand, Cathy Park Hong, Gabe Hudson, Christine Suewon Lee, Paul LeFarge, Jynne Martin, Daniel Menaker, Alana Newhouse, Ed Park, Shilpa Prasad, Akhil Sharma, and John Wray.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

G
ARY
S
HTEYNGART
was born in Leningrad in 1972 and came to the United States seven years later. His debut 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 named one of the 10 Best Books of the Year by
The New York Times Book Review
, as well as a best book of the year by
Time, The Washington Post Book World
, the
San Francisco Chronicle
, the
Chicago Tribune
, and many other publications. He has been selected as one of
Granta
’s Best Young American Novelists. His work has appeared in
The New Yorker, Esquire, GQ
, and
Travel + Leisure
and his books have been translated into more than twenty languages. He lives in New York City.

Visit the
Super Sad True Love Story
website for more information about Gary Shteyngart

www.SuperSadTrueLoveStory.com

Join Gary Shteyngart’s Facebook page and download his free iPhone app

www.SuperSadApp.com

Super Sad True Love Story
is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Published in the United States by Random House, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

R
ANDOM
H
OUSE
and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Shteyngart, Gary.
Super sad true love story : a novel / Gary Shteyngart.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-679-60359-7
I. Title.
PS3619.H79S87 2010
813′.6—dc22 2009037971

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