Sisters of Fortune

A Novel

By: Esther Chehebar

Narrated by: Olga Namer, Gail Shalan, Gilli Messer

“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.

Amazing characters

I was immediately caught up in the family dynamics. Listening to the book also made each character stand out with quirks, expressions, and attitude. It was also interesting to learn about Syrian Jewish traditions. An interesting, fun and well developed novel.

A Snapshot of Womanhood and Family in Brooklyn's Syrian Jewish Community

I grew up adjacent to the Syrian Jewish Community in Brooklyn and the novel brought back so many memories of the people and places of my childhood and young adulthood. The book felt like Jewish comfort food, but I wish we had gotten more of Fortune's story. Nina was fairly predictable and I found Lucy beyond obnoxious.

Beautifully written

This book was just beautiful from the characters to the readers. Loved loved loved it

Slow book made worse by monotonic narration

I couldn’t finish this book. The story dragged and the narration both grated and put me to sleep.

Nothing happened

I was really looking forward to this book, but it was not at all engaging to me. Aside from characterization of daily life in Brooklyn, there was really no problem, tension, or anything exciting to latch onto and engage me. The narration did not help: Nina's voice was bored stilted and totally grating - she seemed very unengaged. The other voices were screechy at times, just annoying at others. Very disappointing read.