cover image Super Sad True Love Story

Super Sad True Love Story

Gary Shteyngart, read by Adam Grupper and Ali Ahn, Recorded Books, unabridged, 11 CDs, 13.25 hrs., $56.95 ISBN 978-1-4498-0968-3

In a near-future America that teeters even more desperately on the financial and political brink than it does today, aging 39-year-old Lenny Abramov and alluring 24-year-old Eunice Park build a doomed relationship on a shared need for emotional, physical, and financial security. Adam Grupper perfectly embodies Lenny, a socially awkward intellectual in a world that has no more use for books or philosophy, a man radiating a hunger for love and acceptance. Ali Ahn does well as Eunice, a shopping-obsessed young woman who allows her poor self-esteem issues to rule what could be a generous heart. Both readers also provide vivid portraits of supplementary characters; Ahn particularly shines as Eunice’s mother. A Random hardcover (Reviews, May 3). (Aug.)