The novel “Searching for a Sad Baby” (1986) became one of the first works Aksenov wrote in the USA, and it is rightly considered an encyclopedia of America—a country seen through the fresh eyes of a Russian writer. This book is about a romantic fascination with America as a symbol of freedom and about disillusionment in it, about furious anti-Americanism so relevant today, and, of course, about the Russia the author left behind…