MARPLE — Upper Darby manager Dave Jerdon didn’t need a scouting report to describe Christian Strickland’s big night at the plate. “It’s about time,” Jerdon said with a grin. “You can quote me on that.

His delightfully bittersweet new novel, “Vera, or Faith,” looks at growing up in a country born out of the past decade’s political and psychological turmoil.

Readers are skeptical that the education and background of the new Democratic candidate for New York City's mayor has much to ...