My earliest reading memory
I was living in Leningrad and there was a book called The Wonderful Adventure of Nils Holgersson, by a Swedish author, Selma Lagerlöf. It inspired me to write my first book when I was five, called Lenin and His Magical Goose, in which Lenin meets a magical Armenian goose and they invade Finland together and make it socialist.
My favourite book growing up
I really liked Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn. By this point I had arrived in America and had difficulty figuring out what the county was all about. That Mark Twain guy really explained it to me. Also, it was my first real foray into humour and I never looked back.
The book that changed me as a teenager
I read Judy Blume nonstop because she was such an honest writer. Are You There, God, It’s Me Margaret was mind-blowing when you consider its adult themes in a book aimed at young people, and I think Forever … taught me just about all I know about intimacy.
The writer who changed my mind
I guess George Orwell, with Nineteen Eighty-Four. I grew up loving dictatorships as a Soviet citizen, but Orwell made it seem a lot less sexy. I’m glad Lenin never met that magical goose.
The book that made me want to be a writer
Oh God, all of them. Every book I read as a kid made me want to be a writer. But maybe the Old Testament really did the trick. I went to a very conservative Jewish school and we had the Torah and Talmud stuffed down our throats for half the day. So I wrote my own version of the Torah in which Exodus became Sexodus, and so on (I was 11 or 12). The rabbis were none too pleased. I guess it was my first satire.
The book or author I came back to
Reading George Eliot’s Middlemarch as a teenager was not a great idea. But when you’re in your 20s it rocks.
The book I reread
I guess the Old Testament (see above). It’s really quite lyrical in places, though could do with less genealogy and a lot less smiting.
The book I could never read again
I guess Evelyn Waugh’s Black Mischief. Hoo boy, that is um … Yeah.
The book I discovered later in life
Later in life? Who has time to read?
The book I am currently reading
Calling Ukraine by Johannes Lichtman. Certainly seems topical.
My comfort read
Nabokov’s Pnin, over and over and over again. Best of his books, certainly the most humane. Just yum yum yum all the way.
• Our Country Friends by Gary Shteyngart is published by Atlantic. To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.
