Vera

Praise

“An absorbing story, illumined by Schiff’s flair for the succinct insight . . . This portrait of a fifty-two-year marriage to a woman who was the writer’s prime reader opens up Nabokov’s private life. . . . But the triumph of Véra is not just in providing entrée to her famous husband. She fascinates of her own right.”—The New York Times Book Review

“Schiff has performed a monumental task in drawing a nuanced and fairly detailed portrait of the woman behind the mask both husband and wife conspired to create. . . . Writing in sprightly prose that captures the ‘verbal tennis’ of the couple’s interactions, [she] has given us a vivid and truthful portrait of a proud and gifted woman whose contribution to Vladimir Nabokov’s life and career was immense.”—The Boston Globe

“A sharply focused, vividly detailed portrait. Schiff’s elegant prose style [is] at once forceful and playfully allusive in the nicest Nabokovian fashion.”—Los Angeles Times

“Artful . . . both revolutionary and old-fashioned, an intimate biography that leaves both the dignity and the privacy of its subject intact.”—Newsday

“Illuminating . . . ‘Without my wife,’ Nabokov once remarked, ‘I wouldn’t have written a single novel.’ . . . Schiff’s work boldly and brilliantly illuminates how complex was this deceptively simple statement . . . A superb portrait.”—The Chicago Tribune

“Absorbing, often wildly amusing, and deeply moving . . . Véra’s mere listening to Lolita did more than we shall ever know to determine what we read when we read Lolita.”—The Seattle Times

“Excellent . . . Behind every great man is a book about a great woman. The same is true of Schiff’s Véra, and yet it is more than just a portrait of a marriage. It is a necessary contribution to Nabokov scholarship. . . . Véra is both love story and literary study. . . . Schiff has done a splendid job.”—San Jose Mercury News