This book is a compelling look into an already complicated world via the eyes of child. Admittedly, I had a hard time getting past the fact that Gary Schteyngart chose to tell the story through a child's perspective. But as this story unfolds, the reader begins to see that Vera shares her world with a somewhat adult sense of humor or at the very least, Shteyngart tells the story in a way where the reader is in on the jokes so to speak.
This is a good book for people who like difficult relationships, messy, families, and complex characters.

3.75 stars

Not a long review but certainly an enthusiastic recommendation.

I'm a sucker for Shteyngart because his life story is very much like my own except he's become a prominent novelist. So the writing, the references, the sensibility are all deeply familiar and resonant. While these aspects leave me predisposed to liking whatever Gary puts out, it was the story that kept me going.

Overall, the book is delicious reading like opening up a box of cracker jack or kettle corn. Chewy, sweet, and difficult to put down. The perspective of a precocious 10-year old struggling with making sense of her world and her life is refreshing and the dad's post-Soviet grasping for success is familiar. I also like the slightly skewed world in which all of this happens...well not the world but the way its portrayed.

So give it a read. Shouldn't take more than a few hours

Liked it as much as Super Sad True Love Story. Interesting perspective especially when compared to his last novel. Will be purchasing.

Gary Shteyngart's signature style shines through in this quick read featuring Vera, a biracial 10 year old girl who is trying so damn hard each day in a version of the US that doesn't seem that farfetched at the moment. Vera's Korean mother isn't in her life, and she is raised by Anne Mom, her WASP-y stepmother (who seems to live with a hefty dose of guilt from her privilege) and her Russian Jewish father who is a larger-than-life character who demands all the air in the room. Then there's Dylan, her half brother, who is the bane of her existence. Vera feels tasked with the responsibility to keep her family together despite its myriad dysfunctions. She is also curious about her genetic mother. On top of all of this, she is a young girl who desperately wants to experience friendship. All of this on its own would make for a good story, but Shteyngart's version of a future that plays with geopolitical extremes adds a sickly fascinating layer to it all.

3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 stars.

This one took me a while to get into. Vera, the 10 year-old narrator, is precocious, and loves learning new words and concepts. I appreciated the author's way of highlighting Vera's new acquisitions to her vocabulary. On the negative side, I always felt like I was missing something, like I was a step behind. The new modern USA was a little scary, and not explicitly explained, so learning about the new world was an ongoing activity.

I did like the author's sense of narration and dialogue -- it kept me invested and interested.

Overall, this was a little different, and pretty good. Would I read more from the author. Yes.

I received a complimentary copy of the novel from the publisher and NetGalley, and my review is being left freely.

A marvelous conception in which every word matters. My regret is that I did not make time to read this story of joy and sadness, vibrant with many moments of awe, in one sitting. Deceptively simple, a story seen through the eyes of a ten-year-old girl, in the tradition of storybook ten-year-old girl heroes, who grows more intelligent with each challenge. In the case of Vera, one has to wonder if it’s genetics, s progressive school, or the stimulation of AI companions, the talking family vehicle and Vera’s friend, her chess game, programmed to give her advice.

The nuclear family unit, pop, mom, son and daughter, described by Pop, Igor, as merely rich, thanks to Pop’s magazine which may be sold any day to a Rhodesian billionaire.

Pop is ethnically a Russian Jew; Mom, referred to as Anne Mom, a blonde liberal WASP, added an ‘e’ to her name like Anne Frank; Dylan, Vera’s younger half-brother, annoying and far less intelligent than his sister, appears, like most young brothers, to be present to take up page space; and Vera, the biracial daughter, Korean and Russian. Mom Mom, Vera’s birth mother, Igor’s first wife, is believed by Vera to be somewhere dying of cancer. To say any more would be to spoil a pleasure. Watching this story develop is like watching a beautiful potted flower in early stages of bloom exposed on a patio.

My thanks to Random House and NetGalley for an advanced readers copy.

A five star review of a stunning novel that I will recommend to no one. It’s so smart, so sad, so captivating, a character study of a brilliant neurodivergent 10 year old girl in a dystopian LitFic. Vera is half Jewish and half Korean, she has a younger brother Dylan. Her father edits a failing publication he wants to sell to an investor, but he is stressed and drinking alcoholically. He is fighter with Vera’s stepmom (who she calls Anne Mom) as they navigate a political climate looking to diminish voting rights.

Vera continually adds to a list she doesn’t understand. It is so fascinating to see this world through her eyes. They have self driving cars and limited autonomy, it’s a post Trump America struggling with the aftermath of a decline in democracy and freedoms. It is challenging to see this world through Vera’s eyes; because while precocious, she is still ten, and this is the world she was born into. I know I missed a bit of the world building in my desire to immerse into Vera’s viewpoint. I really liked how the first person narrative puts idioms into quotations so she can be clear to the reader. I found that to be endearing and sweet.

Vera means faith in Russian. She has faith in her father, her stepmom, in her education, and in her future. She is hopeful although we are not. She loves her AI best friend chess game. She doesn’t know to be worried about what we are worried about.

It’s brilliant and although Vera is endearing, it doesn’t exactly make you feel good. It’s not a pleasure to read. That said, it is a world I won’t forget soon.

Five stars
**a best LitFic of 2025**

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for the ARC. Book to be published July 8, 2025.

Simply put, Shteyngart never misses. And he has the unique gift of addressing the current socio-political situation almost as it's happening, but with style and craft AND, most importantly, without ever seeming to have rushed into relevance. Vera, or Faith is another home run -- and, yes, I'm using a sports metaphor despite one of his character's loathing for the things. In fact, I suppose this makes me, the reviewer, a worldly avatar for his central character, Vera, a ten-year-old overthinker. And if you think Shteyngart, a middle-aged Russian immigrant, incapable of channeling the inner life of a pre-teen Korean-Russian girl living in a slightly, but only slightly, alternate universe -- so slightly that it's just one ultra-dangerous scooch to the right -- then you don't know Shteyngart.

Read the damn book. Read all his books. Gary Shteyngart is a rockstar of the page.

Gary Shteyngart is known for his humor, but this novel is more serious than funny. Vera is the daughter of a Russian immigrant man and a Korean woman. She is of genius level intellect, but anxious and an insomniac. Her mother, referred to as Anne Mom to differentiate her from her real mother known as Mom Mom. Vera has a younger brother who is her half-brother and a real pain. Feeling unloved by Anne, Vera envies Dylan who is blond and cute. Vera takes on responsibility to keep her parents' marriage together. She is also desperate to find a friend.

Though not quite science fiction, the story takes place in what appears to be the near future in a post-Trump America. Feminism is over and the MOTHS march in favor of allowing women to count as three-fifths of a vote. There are some interesting technical developments like a kind of AI chess-playing board made in Korea. Cars are auto-driven and also verbal who mirror the wording of their drivers/owners.

I fell in love with Vera for all her problems and followed her thought processes with delight and interest.

My thanks to Random Huse and Net Galley for offering me the ARC of this novel.

VERA, OR FAITH centers around sweet, precious and sensitive Vera, who is well-cultured and wise beyond her ten years of age, is determined to find their birth mother while keeping her parents together. It's a story about family and fitting in mixed with a sharp commentary on politics. Smartly written and makes for a quick read.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley for the arc in exchange for my honest review.

<I>Vera, or Faith</I> is Gary Shteyngart’s sixth novel. <i>Our Country Friends</i> may be funnier and <i>Lake Success</i> may contain more acerbic cultural commentary. But sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph, page by page, <i>Vera, or Faith</i> is arguably Shteyngart’s best: it never bags, meanders, drags, or loses focus. Shteyngart commands his plot and his characters throughout, and surprises us at the end.

Shteyngart channels the mind and behavior of ten year old Vera Bradford-Shmulkin. Vera is smart, unhappy, worried about her parents’ marriage, and socially awkward. Her favorite book, which she reads at school recess, is <i>The Chess Player’s Bible</i> and her favorite companion is Kaspie the Chess Computer. At school, she’s humiliatingly teased as <i>”Facts Girl.”</i> She keeps and regularly updates three lists: <i>”Ten Great Things about Daddy and Why You Should Stay Together with Him”</i>; <i>”Ten Great Things about Mom and Why You Should Stay Together with Her”</i>, later edited to Six Great Things. . .; and <i>”Things I Still Need to Know Diary.”</i>

Vera is the daughter of Igor, a Russian emigre and editor of a no longer successful intellectual journal. She thinks of her disappeared Korean-American biological mother as Mom Mom, and her step-mother as Anne Mom. Igor and Mom Mom met in the <i>”the College of Fading Repute in the ‘great state of Ohio’”</i> (AKA, Oberlin), and Mom Mom abandoned Vera shortly after birth. Anne Mom <i>”had been born ‘Ann’ but added the <b>e</b> to her name after reading the <b>Diary of Anne Frank</b>”</i>.

Vera narrates the truth as she understands it. All we learn in <i>Vera, or Faith</i>, we learn from her ten year old’s perspective. The lacunae in what we learn are not because Vera is an unreliable narrator, but because she is a reliable ten year old with a ten year old’s limited understanding of the world. Only in the final chapters of <i>Vera, or Faith</i> do we come to understand more about Vera’s dystopian world than she tells us: the subjugation of women, the elevation of white evangelical Christians, and the hard divide between states.

There are no minor characters in <i>Vera, or Faith</i>, but there are characters whose roles in Vera’s life sometimes recede sometimes dominate. There’s Stella the Car, with her weirdly off-key comments, such as <i>”Enjoy the simulacrum of actual learning”</i> as Stella arrives at school. There’s Kaspie the Chess Computer, Vera’s AI-powered chessboard, whose role ping-pongs between playing level-appropriate chess with Vera to dispensing giver questionable life advice. Finally, there’s the beloved Aunt Cecile, Anne Mom’s roommate at Brown.

<i>Vera, or Faith</i> is an excellent addition to the American canon of dystopian fiction. Sinclair Lewis’ <i>It Can’t Happen Here</i>, Louise Erdrich’s <i>Future Home of the Living God</i>, and Celeste Ng’s <i>Our Missing Hearts</i>, fine novels all, need to make room on the shelf for Gary Shteyngart’s <i>Vera, or Faith</i>. With her age-limited viewpoint, we come to a better understanding of how authoritarianism can softly creep in and overtake American society.

Five stars

I would like to thank Random House and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced reader’s copy.

So thrilled to be granted an early copy of the latest from Gary Shteyngart, one of my absolute favorite observers of the world condition. As seen through the eyes of a precocious ten-year-old, who, by virtue of being half Korean half Jewish, is herself is an example of the new order, we are jettisoned into the crazy society of today. As with Rosencranz and Guilderson, we only hear half truths eavesdropped and only half understood, and are ourselves prone to misinterpretations. While I usually don't take to accounts related by youngsters created by adults, since it's Shteyngart, it proves worthwhile.

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House for the ebook. Such a delightful comic novel set slightly in the future where America’s divides become a little more ingrained. We follow Vera, a top grade school student who is half Korean and half Russian and is growing up with a New England WASP stepmother and half brother. Sensitive Vera, who is constantly add words to look up, wants her parents to stay married (unlikely), make a friend (more likely) and try and find and meet her Korean birth mom. A fast and funny book that was surprisingly moving by the end.

I’m a huge Shteyngart fan—books, articles, and of course, his Twitter/X feed. "Vera, or Faith" delivers his trademark wit, humor, pacing, and imagination, set in a near future that feels closer every day. A page-turning social satire (not an easy feat!) with sharp commentary reminiscent of Tom Wolfe at his best. Told from the POV of Vera, a fully realized and deeply sympathetic child, the story carries emotional weight. Thank you for sharing the galleys—I truly appreciate it!

A beautiful story about belonging and and fitting in within your family. I loved this exploration from a child's point of view. The story is creative and well written. I was captivated. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Oh Boy….Gary Shteyngart fans are in for a humongous treat!!!!
And if you’re not a fan ….you will be after reading “Vera, or Faith”.

A little about the author (for newbies)….
….Ha….for professional lovers of Shteyngart too!
Gary Shteyngart was born in Leningrad in 1972 and came to the United States seven years later. His debut novel,
‘The Russian Debutante’s Handbook’, (a book I loved), won the Stephen Crane Award for First Fiction and the National Jewish Book Award for Fiction. His second novel,
‘Absurdistan’, (a book that I laughed my ass off) was named one of the 10 Best Books of the Year by The New York Times Book Review. His novel ‘Super Sad True Love Story’ (another fabulous novel) won the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize and became one of the most iconic novel of the decade …. I agree. I love the book so much that I still have my hardcopy from years ago sitting on my ‘special shelf’ of ‘loved’ books.
His memoir ‘Little Failure’ (sooooo good), was a National Book Critics Award finalist. His book ‘Our County Friends’ was a New York Times best seller and his books have been published in 30 countries.
And now….”Vera, Or Faith” …
It might be my all-time favorite Shteyngart novel (I love them all) … If it doesn’t win an abundance of awards … I’ll eat my hat! (it’s the perfect book for our times today)
It’s soooooo ENJOYABLE!!!….(the warmth & humor alone is healing) ….
“Vera, Or Faith” is sooooo adorable, clever, substantially, relevant and meaningful, endearing, sweet, thought-provoking… and oozing with love! (256 pages - one sitting- fiction - delight).

Meeting the character, Vera Bradford-Shmulkin (ten-year-old protagonist), was pure joy!
Bright, curious, puzzled, tender-hearted, consciously thoughtful & sensible, this child doesn’t miss a beat …
Nothing gets unnoticed by Little Ms. Meticulous-Eagle-eyed!
After all …..
…..she has a lot of things to figure out - to learn - to understand. Vera is very serious about her “Things I Still Need To Know Diary” ….. (paying close attention- even spying if necessary is vital)….
For example…..Vera didn’t understand why Blacks and Jews who probably couldn’t trace their heritage to the Revolutionary War, would be at the marches [March of Hatred] …..
“but what really broke her heart, (a phrase from a book she read last year, which made her imagine the left and right ventricles lying on one side and the left and right atriums on the other pinning desperately for one another) were the teenagers and even younger white kids, marching in their dirty mechanic’s and farm overalls with the sign ‘THEY HAVE TAKEN MY FUTURE AWAY FROM ME’”.
……Also …..
Vera would like to explore more about her MomMom ….
(Vera assumes she was a bad baby) ….
Vera needed to figure out more details about her Daddy….(was he a traitor)….but? …. his best friend was a self-described gay Russian bear….(hm? nothing adds up)….
Vera just couldn’t figure out life (WHO COULD?)….

“Vera, or Faith” permeates CHARM ….and relevancy ….
Wonderful characters….
We meet Ms. Tedeschi ….(Vera’s school teacher who wears pretty sun-dresses even in the winter)….
We meet Vera’s best friend: Yumi Saemonsaburou.
Vera thought she was “so lucky” to have the longest Japanese name on record..

We meet her brother, Dylan, Aunt Cecile, etc….
And other students at school, (participating students who would be doing a historical ‘Lincoln-Douglas’ debate from 1858 when both Lincoln and Douglas were vying for the Illinois Senate seat.
We even meet the tantalizing-speaking family car named Stella (an autonomous self-driving car)….and many other memorable characters……..but nobody had my heart like half Jewish, half Korean, genuinely real and lovable VERA.

“Something absolutely bonkers happened” . . . (shhhhh)

Great - great - great!!

Vera is such a delightful and endearing character. I was completely invested in her wellbeing and was hanging on her every thought.

This is the author at his finest. I admire the way he blends satire, marital drama, parenthood, politics, and a sprinkling of dystopia all in one highly entertaining novel. Moving and marvelous!

Thank you very much to Random House and NetGalley for the opportunity to read a copy.