Overview

• Released July 8 by Random House, the novel has drawn acclaim for its biting political satire and inventive child narrator.
• The Five-thirds amendment at the story’s core grants extra votes to “exceptional Americans” while excluding the immigrant protagonist and her family.
• Vera, a sharp but anxious ten-year-old of Russian-Jewish-Korean heritage, navigates her parents’ fraught marriage and questions of identity.
• Subtly futuristic devices such as Kaspie, an AI-powered chessboard, and Stella, an autonomous car, underscore themes of surveillance and bias.
• Critics praise the book’s timely examination of voting rights, immigration enforcement and AI-driven social control.