If you have read any of GARY SHTEYNGART’s essays in The New Yorker, like the one on his botched circumcision, you know he can be wickedly amusing. But if you have read any of his novels, like his most recent, Vera, or Faith, you know he can go very deep without losing his tart take on the absurdity and sorrows of human life. The new book is about a multi-heritage family—Russian, Jewish, Korean, and New England WASP—that is trying to hold on in a country coming apart, the story narrated by their hopeful and observant ten-year-old daughter. In conversation with The New York Times’ SARAH LYALL, Shteyngart will talk about the new novel and the precocious young narrator at its heart, and where his own fiercely original voice comes from.