Dear Fang, with Love

By: Rufi Thorpe

Narrated by: Thorne Stephen

After his daughter, Vera, suffers a psychotic break at a high school party and is diagnosed as bipolar, Lucas decides to take her on a trip to Vilnius, hoping the change of scenery will help rouse her from the fog of her medication and bring them closer together. Lucas and his high school sweetheart, Katya, had Vera when they were only 18, and Lucas was not part of Vera's life for most of her childhood.

Thorpe skillfully weaves family mythology and Lithuanian history in a story of mental illness, inheritance, young love, and adventure in this accomplished and stunningly emotional book.

©2016 Original Material by Rufi Thorpe. Recorded by arrangement with Knopf, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Random (P)2016 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Critic reviews

"Switching between Lucas' endearing narration and Vera's ultrateenage letters home to her boyfriend, Fang, the novel weaves a strange and strangely intoxicating web of histories, both personal and geopolitical.... Melancholic and whimsical at once, Thorpe's novel is…wholly original." ( Kirkus Reviews)

Thoroughly enjoyed.

Stumbled across this book and I’m so glad that I did.
I now wish to travel to Lithuania.

Fatherhood, History, Mental Illness

Rufi Thorpe is an amazing writer, and this is the third of her novels I’ve finished in the last couple months. This story centers around the mental health of a charismatic and insightful teenage girl and a trip she takes with her father—who was not around early in her life—to understand their Jewish heritage. Thorpe paints people very carefully and vividly, and I found myself following along the father’s journey of understanding who his daughter is and what he had missed in not raising her through moments of slow revelation. The love between Vera, the daughter, and her boyfriend back home, Fang, is told in a series of letters that capture so much. I highly recommend this.

Overall I liked the story and the information on Lithuania.

I did not like the narrator. He had this odd quality to his voice that was robotic and flat at times. The cadence was off.

Thoroughly enjoyed

Loved the nuanced presentation of bipolar disorder and the interesting child/parent Didn't want to stop listening.

This was a very well written and recorded story

The book kept my commutes exciting and interesting. I often found myself musing novel ideas.