Sisters of Fortune: A Novel

“Syrian Jewish culture gets the Jane Austen treatment, with sisters Nina, Fortune and Lucy—the rebel, the good girl and the baby of the family, respectively—all on the marriage market. What’s Mama Cohen to do? Chehebar’s witty debut dives deep into Brooklyn’s Syrian Jewish community.”—People (A Best Book of the Month)

The Cohen sisters are at a crossroads. And not just because the obedient middle sister, Fortune, has secretly started to question her engagement and impending wedding, even as her family scrambles to prepare for the big day. Nina, the rebellious eldest sister, is single at twenty-six (and growing cobwebs by her community’s standards) when she runs into an old friend who offers her a chance to choose a different path. Meanwhile, Lucy, the youngest and a senior in high school, has started sneaking around with a charming older bachelor.

As Fortune inches ever closer to the chuppah, the sisters find themselves in a tug-of-war between tradition and modernity, reckoning with what their tight-knit community wants for them—and what they want for themselves.

Sisters of Fortune is a story about dating, ambition, and coming-of-age within an immigrant community whose affection is endearing, maddening, and never boring. This novel explores the roots that entwine our lives with the ones who love us best, the dreams we hold for our daughters, and the winding paths we take to our own happy endings.