Vera, or Faith

A Novel

By: Gary Shteyngart

Narrated by: Shannon Tyo, Gary Shteyngart

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A poignant and bitterly funny tale of a family struggling to stay together in a country rapidly coming apart, told through the eyes of their wondrous ten-year-old daughter, by the bestselling author of Super Sad True Love Story and Our Country Friends

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: TIME, Washington Post, Oprah Daily, Kirkus Reviews

“Pull up a beach chair: The book of the summer is here. . . . A poignant Harriet the Spy–esque delight.”—People (Book of the Week)
“Genius . . . [a] miracle.”—The Washington Post
“A novel you can read in one sitting that will stay with you forever.”—Karen Russell
“Very funny, very sad, very sharp, and completely delightful.”—Elif Batuman
“A brilliant fable about childhood, and so much more, in our broken country.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“A must-read.”—Los Angeles Times
“Shteyngart is one of the best comedians in literature today.”—BookPage (starred review)

The Bradford-Shmulkin family is falling apart. A very modern blend of Russian, Jewish, Korean, and New England WASP, they love one another deeply but the pressures of life in an unstable America are fraying their bonds. There's Daddy, a struggling, cash-thirsty editor whose Russian heritage gives him a surprising new currency in the upside-down world of twenty-first-century geopolitics; his wife, Anne Mom, a progressive, underfunded blue blood from Boston who's barely holding the household together; their son, Dylan, whose blond hair and Mayflower lineage provide him pride of place in the newly forming American political order; and, above all, the young Vera, half-Jewish, half-Korean, and wholly original.

Observant, sensitive, and always writing down new vocabulary words, Vera wants only three things in life: to make a friend at school; Daddy and Anne Mom to stay together; and to meet her birth mother, Mom Mom, who will at last tell Vera the secret of who she really is and how to ensure love's survival in this great, mad, imploding world.

Both biting and deeply moving, Vera, or Faith is a boldly imagined story of family and country told through the clear and tender eyes of a child. With a nod to What Maisie Knew, Henry James's classic story of parents, children, and the dark ironies of a rapidly transforming society, Vera, or Faith demonstrates why Shteyngart is, in the words of The New York Times, "one of his generation's most exhilarating writers."

Compelling story delivered through the eyes of a brilliant, neurodivergent 10 year old. Funny, raw, poignant.

Political backdrop doesn’t smack you but is so well integrated that its’ power stuns. Perfect narration!

Lovely, delightful

This is a quiet, seemingly simple, seemingly light-read book that says so much more than the sum of its words, and packs a wallop. I will be thinking about it for a long time. The narrator was truly excellent. Loved this book.

Fantastic storytelling from child’s POV. the Narrator is exceptional. One of the best I have ever heard in audible

This book speaks to so many issues today and also timeless issues. The narrator does an incredible job of capturing young and old American and Korean and Russian voices.

Utterly moving (in a non-ironic way)

This is a novel for the moment: our anxious, polarized, weirded-out country. The satire of near-future political / informational reality is just provocative enough not to steal the show from 10-year-old Vera. Vera is always plumbing the meaning of vocabulary words in what some would label a precocious and others a neurodiverse way, She encounters something she learns to call “moving” toward the end of the book—and if you’re not moved, you may not be human. Then again, one of Vera’s two best friends is not human either. A brilliantly executed novel, very well delivered by the narrator.

Gary does it again!

once again, Gary S pulls off a most sarcastic and humorous novel. I love the Korean Russian connection, and also that it’s told through the eyes of a very young and an anxious child, perhaps as the author had been? Navigating uncertainty is one of the most difficult things as humans will ever have to do.

Near-future story, and FUNNY

Shteyngart is typically hilarious, and here he takes on an AI-infused, deeply troubled near-future, reminiscent of Clara and the Sun. The results are terrific, best book I've read in a while.

The precociousness of the little girl

I loved that it used all the ridiculousness of our current country. I look forward to reading another book by Gary Shteyngart

Faith and Vera

I liked the way the story unfolded. Many twists and turns and the characters ending was very different than what I had expected.

Excellent narration and fabulous story

Loved the narration. And such a terrific fun deeply moving story about a child managing a complicated life in a complicated family in a complicated world.

Funny and moving

I was in tears at the end. For anyone who has ever been a too bright, too sensitive child, or has one in their life, this was a powerful read. I was rooting for Vera all the way through.