Description

Sasha Goldberg is the ultimate outsider: she's a chubby, biracial Jewish girl from the Siberian town of Asbestos 2. Her father takes off for the United States, and leaves Sasha to navigate adolescence in a bleak apartment bloc with her overbearing mother. Sasha falls in love with an art school drop-out who lives inside a concrete pipe in the town dump. Following her heart gets her into trouble at home, so she flees Russia as a mail-order bride and lands in suburban Arizona. Sasha manages to escape her Red Lobster-loving fiancé and embarks on a misadventure-filled journey across America in search of her father.

Anya Ulinich has crafted an unforgettable story of familial fault lines, cross-cultural confusion, and the beguiling allure of new beginnings. Petropolis is a funny and poignant debut marking the arrival of a major new voice in fiction.

About the Author

Anya Ulinich was seventeen when her family left Moscow and immigrated to the United States. She learned English by watching television, attended the Art Institute of Chicago, and received an MFA in painting from the University of California, Davis.

Praise for Petropolis…

A beautiful, far-ranging voice equally at home on both sides of the Atlantic...Anya Ulinich's satiric romp gives new meaning to the word `bittersweet'. (Gary Shteyngart, author of The Russian Debutante's Handbook and Absurdistan)

How did she do it? Anya Ulinich has written -- and in a second language, no less -- a smashing debut, at once a deeply moving coming-of-age odyssey and a globe-spanning satire of societies gone desperately and hilariously awry. I loved Petropolis for its bone-dry humor, eye-popping authenticity, and vividly realized characters. Most of all, I loved Sasha Goldberg. Through its darkest and most comic moments, this book made me very, very happy. (Katherine Shonk, author of The Red Passport)

A beautiful, far-ranging voice equally at home on both sides of the Atlantic...Anya Ulinich's satiric romp gives new meaning to the word `bittersweet'. (Gary Shteyngart, author of The Russian Debutante's Handbook and Absurdistan)

For a girl from a bleak Siberian town, Ulinich's protagonist Sasha Goldberg has a surprisingly big heart and a hysterical view of life in America. Petropolis is a compassionate and unusual novel about motherhood, immigration, and religious fanaticism. (Laura Dave, author of London Is The Best City In America)

Ulinich is unflinchingly funny, sensitive, and a superb new talent. (Akhil Sharma, author of An Obedient Father)

Petropolis is a real feast of sharp wit, quirky characters and amazing situations. (Lara Vapnyar, author of Memoirs of a Muse and There Are Jews in My House)

A dark irresistible comedy with an authentic Russian voice. (Martin Cruz Smith, author of Gorky Park and Stalin's Ghost