This was the first book I’ve read by the author. Vera’s story offers a sharp and heartfelt exploration of multicultural family dynamics, shifting political conditions, identity, and awareness, as well as the complexities of modern America. It was a thought-provoking and socially insightful reading experience conveyed through humour.

If you enjoy reading humour, contemporary and literary fiction; then this one is definitely for you!

This is an ARC review. I appreciate receiving this copy from NetGalley and the publisher in return for an honest review.

Set in a near-future America grappling with a chilling “5/3 law” that would give immigrants less voting power, Vera, or Faith follows a sharp, inquisitive young girl who suspects her father may be a Russian spy. Vera doesn’t quite fit in; she’s Russian and South Korean, lives with her white American stepfamily, and confides mostly in her AI chess-playing companion. The story unfolds through her limited, often fragmented perspective, which gives it a haunting, sometimes whimsical feel. While we don’t always get the full picture, I couldn’t help but love Vera. Shteyngart weaves timely political commentary into a tender, funny, and unsettling coming-of-age story.

Loved this!

I went into it with some trepidation - not another story of affluent Jewish New York family neuroses. Narrated by a child, no less. But there are subtle differences from the trope. The narrator and daughter of the family, Vera, is engaging and funny while also conveying her sense of dislocation . The novel doesn't succumb to whimsy. And it's set in a near future subtly different from our own, while still scarily recognisable.

Within Vera's small world of family and school are existential conflicts. Much of the humour comes from us as adults understanding what Vera cannot, but there are also some surprises. It's a clever, moving exploration of identity, conviction and kindness in a world where venality, greed and even cruelty are rewarded.

This is the kind of fiction I love to read: smart, well-written, darkly funny yet poignant. I blazed through ‘Vera, or Faith’ in just a few hours, it’s such an enjoyable book and so absorbing. It helps that it has a lightning-quick pace, with not a single unnecessary word or scene, and at 256 pages, it’s a fairly short read.

Telling a story from the perspective of a child is always a risk, but for this story, it’s perfect, and the author pulls it off faultlessly. I love ten-year-old Vera. She feels so real and relatable—as are all the characters who surround her. I can still see the image of Vera’s father crying in “Daddy’s Little Pool”, aka the hot tub at their summer house.

The dystopian setting feels very real, too. Unfortunately, I can imagine just this kind of scenario occurring in America within the next decade, with the “Five-Three” amendment granting enhanced votes to “exceptional Americans” (read: those who can trace their ancestry back to white settlers who arrived pre-Revolutionary War and who were not slaves), and with menstrual cycle checking upon entry and exit to certain states as a way of controlling women’s reproductive choices. This makes the book particularly insightful and important, as it invites the reader to consider how the future might look for children like Vera if the adults of today don’t recognise the threat we all face and do something to stop such a decline from democracy.

The struggle with identity, particularly around ethnicity, is something that a lot of readers will relate to as well. As is the amount of pressure placed on children nowadays.

‘Vera, or Faith’ is a great choice for anyone looking for an entertaining read with a lot of heart and important underlying themes. With its wonderful characters and accessible writing style, it’s also great for anyone looking to dip their toes in Literary Fiction.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Gary Shteyngart and Atlantic Books for the ARC. My review will be posted on Instagram, Amazon UK, Goodreads and The StoryGraph near or on the publication date.

“All of this was making Vera feel at home , especially the smell of fish coming from the kitchen, which made her nostalgic for something she couldn’t identify. But then she could. Yumi’s mother was Asian like her own had been. Or still was. Or something. She hated that happiness and sadness were always forming a pretzel.”

Vera is a wonderful character – smart and sensitive. I loved her take on the strange world around her, a dystopian America, with her school an albeit privileged microcosm where the tension and contradictions play out. As she tries to make sense of her identity Vera becomes a detective in her own life story. While some plotlines were under-developed it’s Vera that makes this novel a great read – her curiosity for language and meaning will stay with me.

This reminded me of Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro. And it’s apparently somewhat of a nod to What Maisie Knew by Henry James, which I have not read.

Thanks to @NetGalley and Atlantic Books for the digital advance copy!

This is great fun - excellent humour and a good story too.

Our main character is Vera, 10 years old, super smart and - because of that - having difficulties making friends.

One day she overhears her father (a progressive intellectual of sorts and pretty insufferable, but a great character) explain to her stepfather that her biological mother has cancer, making Vera want to meet her at all cost.

The novel is set in the near future United States, perhaps 10 years from now - AI plays a much greater role in everyday life and politically the extreme right has been doing well in implementing all kinds of idiotic policies.

I had never read Gary Shteyngart before, but - in his own words - he is a writer "we might need to take seriously".

In Vera, or The Faith, Gary Shteyngart turns his sharp, satirical eye inward, crafting a deeply personal and darkly comic novel about memory, identity, and maternal obsession. Loosely based on his own life and his complicated relationship with his mother, the book follows Sasha, a writer whose successful life unravels as he confronts long-suppressed truths about his childhood and his formidable mother, Vera.

Shteyngart blends biting humor with emotional rawness, delivering a story that is as self-lacerating as it is poignant. The novel probes the cost of loyalty, the instability of memory, and the strange faith that binds us to those who raised us—whether they nurtured us or broke us.

It’s one of Shteyngart’s most intimate and mature works to date.

After his Chekhovian lockdown novel Country Friends, Gary Shteyngart’s new novel tackles the Trump administration head on with his trademark mixture of satire, dark humour and social commentary. We are in a near-future USA where a motion to give WASP descendants five-thirds of the vote due to their ‘exceptionalism’ is about to become law. Our way into this plausible future is through the story of Vera, a precocious 10-year old of Korean heritage with aims of being a ‘woman in STEM’ and her family of younger brother Dylan, step-mum Anna and Russian-heritage Daddy. Vera’s search for her Mom Mom takes place against a backdrop of family arguments, and marches by anti-amendment protestors. Her quest is aided by her Korean chess computer, her best friend and debating partner at school, and a very untrustworthy self-driving car (a none-too subtle dig at Musk). It’s a short, witty and moving novel with an engaging protagonist. If it’s not in as broad a comic register as some of his previous work, his remains a delicate and unique voice.

Set in a near future which given the state of global politics is coming nearer all the time, Vera is a ten year old who is trying to make sense of everything and hold her world and family together. Vera suffers from anxiety, which to a lot of the adults in her life seems inexplicable, but to Vera, with her spiralling to do lists and the weight of responsibility on her shoulders, does not seem inexplicable at all. Told through Vera's eyes this is the story of the pressures of modern life filtered through the lens of a child who is 'only ten.' Beautiful, sometimes funny, often devastatingly sad, this is brilliant.

Vera, or Faith by Gary Shteyngart has such an appealing narrator who is just trying to figure so many things out which makes you really root for her and feel her pain.