In the novel described by Publishers Weekly as "A taut debut... [that] strikes with the creeping suddenness of a brush fire", Waclawiak tells the story of Anya, a young woman living alone in a Russian neighborhood in Los Angeles, who struggles to retain her parents' Polish culture while trying to assimilate into her newly adopted community.
Anya stalks the nearby Twin Palms nightclub, the pinnacle of exclusivity in the Russian community. Desperate not only to gain entrance into the club but to belong there, Anya begins a perilous pursuit for Lev, a Russian gangster who frequents the seemingly impenetrable world of the Twin Palms.
According to the novel’s publisher, the independent Two Dollar Radio publishing company How To Get Into the Twin Palms is an incredibly funny and moving book, a one-of-a-kind account of the lives of immigrants in LA, and a credulous portrait of the city. Within days of the book’s release, the Flavorwire internet service listed the novel among 10 most important new books to be read in July.
Karolina Waclawiak has been living in the United States from the age of two, but she was born in Łódź. In an interview for the New York Times, the young author comments: "I was born in Lodz, Poland, and came to America when I was 2 years old. I don’t remember our journey at all, but it’s had a large impact on me. Like Anya, I did go to a summer camp for refugee children in Texas when I was young, and it was largely split between Eastern European and Asian refugees. Many had only been in the country for a few years but I had been in America nearly my entire life, so it was a strange experience."
Waclawiak received her MFA in Fiction from Columbia University. She is Deputy Editor of The Believer and lives and writes in Brooklyn.
Michele Filgate’s article for www.capitalnewyork.com states:
While the author definitely has a generally sunny, optimistic outlook, she writes from a darker place, which she traced to an episode from her youth. (…)
"I am really drawn to those dark, dark stories," she said. "It’s hard for me to come from a place of happiness or joy when I’m so attuned to everything that’s fucked up in the world, and I think maybe if I had a different upbringing I would have a much different worldview—but the fact is that we struggled so much."
Editor: Paulina Schlosser
Source: booklips.pl, www.capitalnewyork.com