"Waclawiak takes the immigrant novel and spins it on its head. A great addition to 1.5 generation literature, beautifully written, funny and touching."
-Gary Shteyngart
"It was a strange choice to decide to pass as a Russian. But it was a question of proximity and level of allure. Russians were everywhere in Los Angeles, especially in my neighborhood, and held a certain sense of mystery. I had long attempted to inhabit my Polish skin and was happy to finally crawl out of it. I would never tell my mother. She only thought of them as crooks and beneath us. They felt the same about us, we were beneath them. It had always been a question of who was under whom."
Anya is a young woman living in a Russian neighborhood in Los Angeles, struggling between retaining her parents' Polish culture and the American-ness she was submerged in growing up. She decides to blaze a new path, and attempt to assimilate within her adopted community, epitomized by the exclusive club the Twin Palms. It is Anya's goal to gain entrance to this club.
"How To Get Into the Twin Palms" is hilarious and deeply moving, providing a humorous twist on the typical immigrant tale of belonging.
Karolina Waclawiak received her MFA in Fiction from Columbia University. She is Deputy Editor of "The Believer" and lives and writes in Brooklyn.
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