Vera Is Published!

Here are some scenes from my pub date

Vera, Or Faith, my seventh book, sailed into the world last night with a reading at the 92nd Street Y in NYC where I was joined by my friend the wonderful writer Amor Towles in conversation. It was so much fun, and I kept looking at Salman Rushdie in the front row. He was laughing, so I felt okay. I dropped an ativan on the stage floor and someone brought it to me at the signing line lovingly wrapped in tissue. That’s Manhattan for ya.

On stage, we talked about all the things that make Vera tick — her loneliness, her trying to keep her family together, her desperate quest for a first friend, her status as a non-white person in a dystopian future (or maybe present-day?) society where only those who can trace their lineage to the Revolutionary War have enhanced status. I’m so lucky to have friends who know how to ask all the right questions and who know me so well.

I even got a chance to show off my new Irish walking stick! I love carrying it around my neighborhood. People think I have trouble walking and help me to my destination.

Afterwards, there was a party thrown at the Armoury and the great mixologist Connor Piazza made me an incredible martini that somehow successfully added herring extract into the mix (it was modeled after a Russian appetizer called Herring Under the Fur Coat). Amor was very skeptical, but one taste later he was in martini herring heaven. You can find Connor at Coqodaq on 22nd Street.

The book tour continues! My son helpfully made me a list of the temperatures in every city I’m visiting next week (that’s something Vera would do for her Daddy), although he seems to think I’m going to Chernobyl on the 17th. It’s Toledo, folks. I’ve been to both and they are definitely not the same.

Stay tuned for my tour updates on this channel! Oh, and Vera is out there ready to be bought and read.