--- title: Our Country Friends: 100 Must-Read Books of 2021 description: Find out why "Our Country Friends" by Gary Shteyngart is on TIME's list of the must-read books from this year. canonical: https://time.com/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120621/our-country-friends/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2021-11-22T14:31:50.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-02T23:58:05.437Z og:title: 'Our Country Friends' Is One of the 100 Must-Read Books of 2021 og:description: Here's why it made the list og:url: https://time.com/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120621/our-country-friends/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf80a50f1a988cbe7/6998cd3be1ba008edc98e4bd/time-hi-res.webp?branch=production&width=640&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 'Our Country Friends' Is One of the 100 Must-Read Books of 2021 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'Our Country Friends' Is One of the 100 Must-Read Books of 2021 twitter:description: Here's why it made the list twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf80a50f1a988cbe7/6998cd3be1ba008edc98e4bd/time-hi-res.webp?branch=production&width=640&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Nov 22, 2021 # Our Country Friends by Gary Shteyngart by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff  Writing a successful pandemic novel is a tall order: we’re still in the middle of it and people, for the most part, don’t want to be reminded of everything they are going through. But, through his darkly funny new novel, Gary Shteyngart proves that there is something to be gained from reading about these unprecedented times. _Our Country Friends_ begins in March 2020 when a group of friends and friends-of-friends retreat to a home in upstate New York with plans to isolate together as COVID-19 shuts down the rest of the world. Shteyngart follows this collective of creatives over the next six months as their relationships shift and their loyalties are tested. The story is rooted in the present but has a timeless feel, with each character attempting to understand their place in the group and their connection to the life they once lived outside of it. **Buy Now:** _Our Country Friends_ on [Bookshop](https://bookshop.org/a/4973/9781984855121 "undefined") | [Amazon](https://amzn.to/30sbEND "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120621/our-country-friends/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120621/our-country-friends/"},"headline":"Our Country Friends","datePublished":"2021-11-22T14:31:50.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T23:58:05.437Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120621/our-country-friends/","keywords":["Books","list","best books"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf80a50f1a988cbe7/6998cd3be1ba008edc98e4bd/time-hi-res.webp?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf80a50f1a988cbe7/6998cd3be1ba008edc98e4bd/time-hi-res.webp?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120621/our-country-friends/","name":"Our Country Friends"}}]}] ```