🎤︎︎ New Five Books Episode: Esther Levy Chehebar on Marriage, Sisterhood, and the Weight of Tradition

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. Nina, the rebellious eldest sister, is single at 26 (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, 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—and with what they want for themselves.

Esther Chehebar is a contributing writer at Tablet magazine, where she covers Sephardic Jewish tradition and community. She holds an MFA from the New School and has had her work featured in Glamour and Man Repeller. Chehebar’s first book, I Share My Name, was an illustrated children’s book explaining the Sephardic tradition of naming children for their grandparents. Sisters of Fortune is her debut novel.

In our conversation, we spoke about the culture of hospitality in Brooklyn’s Syrian Jewish community, the assumptions people make about such a close-knit group, and the inherent tension between tradition and individuality.

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Esther Levy Chehebar’s Five Books

1. The Diary of Anne Frank

2. Beware of God by Shalom Auslander

3. Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

4. No Fault by Haley Mlotek

5. Sisters of Fortune by Esther Levy Chehebar

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