The Matchmaker's Gift

The novel alternates between two timelines. One traces Sara Glikman, a Jewish immigrant who discovers a supernatural gift for recognizing soulmates. The other follows Sara's granddaughter, Abby Silverman, a divorce attorney in 1994 who inherits Sara's journals and questions whether she shares her grandmother's abilities.

In 1910, ten-year-old Sara travels by steamship from Kalarash to New York with her parents, her older sister Hindel, and three brothers. When Hindel weeps for the life she left behind, Sara fetches a handkerchief from a stranger named Aaron. As she leads Aaron toward Hindel, Sara sees a single strand of golden light connecting them. Three months later, Hindel and Aaron marry on Rivington Street. At the reception, Rabbi Sheinkopf tells Sara she has the ability to see soulmates reaching for each other and declares her a shadchanteh, a female matchmaker, "for this strange, new world."

In 1994, Abby, a first-year associate at the divorce firm Berenson & Gold, learns that Sara has died at ninety-four. Abby's own parents divorced when she was twelve; her father Phil's dismissive suggestion that she become a divorce lawyer shaped her career. After the funeral, Abby receives boxes from Sara's Florida condo containing leather-bound journals cataloging every match Sara made, with names, backgrounds, and cryptic observations.

At thirteen, Sara sees a faint light connecting Hindel's friend Miryam Nachman to Jacob Tunchel, an optometry student on Orchard Street. She persuades Jacob to meet Miryam, and they marry in August 1913. The neighborhood shadchan, or matchmaker, confronts Sara's father and demands she stop. Her father defends her but makes Sara promise to wait until she is married before making more matches, fearing retaliation.

After Sara's father dies in 1916, leaving the family in debt, Rabbi Sheinkopf introduces her to Moishe Raskin, "The Pickle King of New York," whose daughter Ida needs a match after a broken engagement. Sara befriends Ida while working at Raskin's Pickles, and on Rosh Hashanah sees a thread of light linking Ida to Herman Lipovsky, a dentist. The couple becomes engaged, and Raskin pays the Glikman family's debts. To shield Sara from the shadchanim, the neighborhood matchmakers, Raskin arranges for a New York Times article denying a matchmaker was used.

Abby discovers this clipping in Sara's journal, with Sara's note: "Don't believe everything you read." Meanwhile, Abby's work grows complicated. With her senior partner Diane Berenson, she handles prenuptial negotiations for Victor Étoile, a fashion designer, and his fiancée Nicole Blanchard, a model studying business at NYU. Abby also leads the divorce of Evelyn Morgan, a wealthy hotelier leaving her fourth husband, Michael Gilbert, a poet she clearly still loves. During a visit, Abby notices Evelyn cannot read documents. When Michael walks in, Abby sees the couple surrounded by a halo of golden light. Diane reprimands Abby for questioning whether clients' marriages should end.

Raskin funds Sara's attendance at Barnard College. At a Columbia event in 1918, Sara meets Nathan Weisman, who becomes her first romance. Her brother Joe is killed in France. When Nathan drives Sara home, Esther, Rabbi Sheinkopf's niece, reaches for Sara's suitcase at the same moment as Nathan. Sara sees a brilliant light between them, revealing Nathan and Esther as true soulmates. Heartbroken, Sara ends the relationship and transfers to Hunter College. She confesses to the rabbi her fear that she will never find love. He tells her love is not always a straight, shining line but sometimes a shady path full of unpredictable turns.

In 1994, Abby's instincts sharpen. At Victor's fashion show, she sees a strand of light connecting Nicole to Will Brenner, the corporate lawyer Abby has been dating. She introduces them and feels relief rather than loss. Michael Gilbert reveals that Evelyn believes she is going blind from retinitis pigmentosa, a genetic eye condition, and is divorcing him to spare him the burden. Abby promises to help.

Sara's 1921 chapters show her decisive transformation. After eight years of suppressing her gift, she resolves to practice matchmaking openly. She matches Morty Finkel, a knish maker, with Beryl Klein, whose family owns a rival knish shop. The shadchanim summon Sara before a beis din, a rabbinical court. Sara defends herself calmly, presenting her journals and admitting to a gold bracelet she accepted as payment from Miryam. Five women she previously matched testify on her behalf. The court rules in Sara's favor. Outside the shul, or synagogue, Gabriel Auerbach, the young lawyer who gathered the witnesses, mentions seeing a light around Sara's face. She takes his hand, and their courtship begins.

Abby visits Dr. Jessica Cooper, Sara's ophthalmologist, and learns that Jessica's grandparents were Jacob and Miryam Tunchel, Sara's second match. Sara had spent two years trying to find Jessica a match and told Jessica that Abby could help. Abby convinces Evelyn to see Jessica, who determines that Evelyn's vision loss stems from her arthritis medication rather than genetics. The divorce is put on hold. At a bakery, when Jessica and Victor shake hands, Abby sees an iridescent glow between their palms.

In Sara's apartment, Abby discovers final notebooks revealing that Sara matched Holocaust survivors after the war, helped a woman escape a violent husband after sensing ominous flashes, and resumed matchmaking at ninety.

Abby arranges for Jessica and Victor to meet at the Shakespeare Festival in Central Park, tells Will they are better as friends, and encourages him to pursue Nicole. Evelyn announces her divorce is off, but Diane puts Abby on notice for interfering in clients' lives.

At Victor's engagement party, Diane fires Abby for betraying the firm's trust. Minutes later, Victor and Nicole announce they are calling off the wedding but forming a permanent business partnership, renaming the brand "Étoile et Soleil." Victor praises Abby as the "secret weapon" whose empathy and insight made their happiness possible.

Abby reads Sara's final journal entry, which reveals Sara always believed Abby inherited her gifts. Press coverage paints Abby as a "secret weapon," and Diane offers to rehire her, but Abby declines, choosing instead to pursue public interest law and family advocacy. Jessica gives Abby the gold bracelet that originally belonged to Miryam Tunchel, the same one Sara was compelled to return at the beis din, completing a generational circle. Abby pastes articles about Evelyn and Michael's reconciliation into Sara's journal, continuing her grandmother's tradition.

In a brief epilogue set in 1995, Evelyn invites Abby to a vow-renewal ceremony. Abby meets Evelyn's nephew Noah, recently arrived in New York. They share margaritas and conversation, and Abby begins to cry from grief and gratitude. Noah notices a salty taste in his drink, though neither glass was rimmed with salt. At home, Abby remembers Sara's cryptic answer about recognizing one's soulmate: "When you weep, the one you are meant for tastes the salt of your tears."