Barnes & Noble Selects Gary Shteyngart’s Our Country Friends as November 2021 National Book Club Selection

 Barnes & Noble announced Our Country Friends by Gary Shteyngart as the November 2021 selection for the Barnes & Noble Book Club, a monthly book club designed for readers across the country to discuss the most compelling books.

Barnes & Noble is selling a special, exclusive Book Club edition of Our Country Friends as well as hosting a free LIVE virtual event with Gary Shteyngart about the book on Tuesday, December 7, at 3pm Eastern Time. Registration via Eventbrite is required. Customers can purchase the exclusive edition, in-stores or online at BN.com.

“Our Country Friends has been called the ‘great American Pandemic Novel’, and it is a title well-earned. Gary Shteyngart’s ability to write about the idiosyncrasies of American life is unparalleled, and the pandemic provides a dramatic backdrop from which his characters and their tumultuous relationships shine through,” said Shannon DeVito, Director of Books, Barnes & Noble. “With Our Country Friends, Shteyngart brings the reader back to March 2020, at the start of COVID lockdowns, and introduces us to eight very different people unexpectedly living together in isolation in an upstate New York house. Engaging with these country friends is both entertaining and cathartic, and we are confident our Book Club readers will love this novel.”  

Barnes & Noble invites customers to join the B&N Book Club Facebook Group to share their views of the book as well as attend the virtual Book Club event next month to hear from Gary Shteyngart.

“I needed smelling salts after hearing that Our Country Friends was the new Barnes & Noble Book Club pick and passing out from the excitement,” said Gary Shteyngart. “I live right next to the B&N flagships store on Union Square in NYC, which is to say I mostly live IN the B&N store and knowing that my book would soon be awesomely featured within made my heart sing.”

The virtual event with Gary Shteyngart on December 7 will be hosted on Zoom. Registration via Eventbrite is required. Before the virtual event, customers can also join in discussion at their convenience on the new B&N Book Club Facebook group and on social media via the hashtag #BNBookClub.

Previous Barnes & Noble Book Club selections have included: The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green, The Last Romantics by Tara Conklin, The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See, Lost Roses by Martha Hall Kelly, Mrs. Everything by Jennifer Weiner, The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead, Inland by Téa Obreht, The Testaments by Margaret Atwood, Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano, The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett, Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam,  Hour of the Witch by Chris Bohjalian, The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris, and The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller.

About Barnes & Noble

Barnes & Noble, Inc. is the largest retail bookseller in the United States, and a leading retailer of content, digital media and educational products. The Company has over 600 Barnes & Noble bookstores in 50 states, as well as the Nook Digital business and one of the Web’s premier e-commerce sites, BN.com. General information on Barnes & Noble, Inc. can be found on the Company’s website at www.bn.com.