Vera Bradford-Shmulkin lives in New York with her family of Russian origin. She adores her father, Igor, editor of a prominent art magazine. She knows little about her mother, who is American and Korean. Her stepmother Anne, her half-brother Dylan, their car Stella (which doesn’t need to be driven, as it is fully autonomous), and their friend Kaspie, an artificial intelligence chessboard, complete the picture. We are in the near future, both imaginary and furiously realistic, as the country descends into fascism. Vera, a rebellious narrator with extraordinary sagacity, bears witness to the intimate chaos of her family and of America.
This drama—the land of freedom plunging into repression—becomes, under Shteyngart’s pen, a tale full of fantasy that masks its deep melancholy with tenderness and laughter.
