Gary Shteyngart reads Andrea Lee's short story "Brothers and Sisters Around the World," and discusses it with The New Yorker's fiction editor, Deborah Treisman.
This is the New Yorker fiction podcast from the New Yorker magazine.
I'm Deborah Treisman, fiction editor at the New Yorker.
Each month we invite a writer to choose a story from the magazine's archives to read and discuss.
This month, my guest is the novelist Gary Steingart, and he chose a story by Andrea Lee that came out in the winter of 2000 called brothers and sisters around the world.
The girls squatting under the mango tree stare hard at me whenever I sit out on the beach or walk down to the water to swim.
They stare at me and guffaw and stretch and give their breath, competitive shake.
Gary Steingart is the author of two novels, the russian debutante's Handbook and Absurdistan, excerpts from which appeared in the New Yorker.
He was born in St.
Petersburg, which was then Leningrad, but left Russia when he was seven and has lived in New York on and off since then.
Hi, Gary.
Hi.
Now, when I was coming here today, I was trying to think up some parallels between your writing and Andrea Lee's writing.
I couldn't come up with much.
She writes about elegant, wealthy Europeans and american expats in Europe.
And you write about low grade criminals and con men who try to take advantage of wealthy Europeans expats.
The circle is complete.
What is it that draws you to her writing?
I first discovered her in 2004.
I was living in Rome for a year.
I had no idea about Andrea Lee's background.