Vera, Or Faith

Vera, or Faith is a novel that you can read in one sitting that will stay with you forever. Gary Shteyngart's sentences are works of art, and his humor feels medicinal at this turbulent hour in our fractured America. Vera instantly became one of my favorite child narrators, and her lucid bewilderment is by turns poignant, funny, and wise. Vera's story is at once signature Shteyngart-laugh-out-loud funny and stylistically daring-while also breaking new ground. I loved this heartfelt and vulnerable exploration of the secret cargo that Vera must carry, the detective work that she must do to piece together her social reality and family history, and the howl of grief and love at this novel's heart. * Karen Russell, Pulitzer Prize finalist and New York Times bestselling author of Swamplandia! *
Vera, or Faith is very funny, very sad, very sharp, and completely delightful-peak Shteyngart! * Elif Batuman, Pulitzer Prize finalist and international bestselling author of The Idiot and Either/Or *
This is satire full of feeling, saturated with dark, comedic grief for what we all could lose. * Observer *
The book works on an astounding range of levels. It is a painfully acute portrayal of schoolyard loneliness with real things to say about AI and mental illness. It is also a classic American road adventure. Gary Shteyngart keeps getting better. * Literary Review *
Vera or Faith leaves us with a potent dose of childlike bemusement at our world, its strangeness, its delicateness, its incoherence. * Financial Times *
Shteyngart sets about his material with abundant energy and charm. He sketches a convincing caricature of a near-future USA and provides a stoical heroine that we can uncomplicatedly root for. * Guardian *
Rewarding for the reader is the character of Vera, whose anxious, quixotic world view makes particular what would otherwise be commonplace. * Daily Mail *
This novel's revelation lies in its tenderness and grace... The portrait that emerges of a family and a nation on the brink is certainly funny - darkly, sorrowfully so. * Irish Mail on Sunday *
Pull up a beach chair: The book of the summer is here... A poignant Harriet the Spy-esque delight. * People (Book of the Week) *
In its swirls of emotion, its humor, its pathos, and the unsparing humanity of its vision, Vera, or Faith is like some fabulous, hitherto-unknown creature that's been let out of its bottle and set free. It begins to seem that there's nothing Gary Shteyngart can't do. * Michael Cunningham, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Day and The Hours *
I consider myself a Gary Shteyngart superfan, but he has outdone himself with the charming, hilarious, and deeply moving Vera, or Faith. Vera is everything I want in a character-funny, curious, wise, and wildly original. She'll make you laugh, break your heart, and fill you with hope, all at the same time.? She's easily one of my favorite characters? in fiction, and this is now one of my favorite novels. * Angie Kim, New York Times bestselling author of Happiness Falls and Miracle Creek *
A beautiful, extraordinary, completely brilliant book that is so humane it makes me feel more human. * Joe Weisberg, creator of The Americans *
Shteyngart's new novel, his first since 2021's Our Country Friends, is the story of a very volatile family in a very volatile America, filtered through the eyes of a child, who just wants to be loved (the most Shteyngartian of motivations, and the most human). * Literary Hub, one of the "Most Anticipated Books of 2025" *