Vera, Or Faith

This book is tippy top-top-top. Set just slightly in the future, it’s a funny, sharp, deeply heartfelt story about a family and a country on the collective struggle bus, just trying to hold it together.

Vera is ten years old, precocious and vigilant, and mostly just wants to meet her mother (Mom Mom), who’s Korean and looks like her. She also prays her Russian dad, a chaotic magazine editor, stays married to his very WASPy New England second wife (Ann Mom). That’s no small ask. Vera’s also working hard on her social skills and dreaming of a best friend, wearing all those hopes like as lightly too-heavy crown.

You can read this one in a weekend. It’s slight in length but full of soul. Funny, poignant, and off-beat in all the right ways. Do not miss it.

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