Title: The Matchmaker’s Gift
Author: Lynda Cohen Loigman
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Publication date: September 20, 2022
Length: 320 pages
Genre: Contemporary/historical fiction
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
From Lynda Cohen Loigman, the bestselling author of The Two-Family House and The Wartime Sisters, comes a heartwarming story of two extraordinary women from two different eras who defy expectations to utilize their unique gift of seeing soulmates in the most unexpected places in The Matchmaker’s Gift.
Is finding true love a calling or a curse?Even as a child in 1910, Sara Glikman knows her gift: she is a maker of matches and a seeker of soulmates. But among the pushcart-crowded streets of New York’s Lower East Side, Sara’s vocation is dominated by devout older men—men who see a talented female matchmaker as a dangerous threat to their traditions and livelihood. After making matches in secret for more than a decade, Sara must fight to take her rightful place among her peers, and to demand the recognition she deserves.
Two generations later, Sara’s granddaughter, Abby, is a successful Manhattan divorce attorney, representing the city’s wealthiest clients. When her beloved Grandma Sara dies, Abby inherits her collection of handwritten journals recording the details of Sara’s matches. But among the faded volumes, Abby finds more questions than answers. Why did Abby’s grandmother leave this library to her and what did she hope Abby would discover within its pages? Why does the work Abby once found so compelling suddenly feel inconsequential and flawed? Is Abby willing to sacrifice the career she’s worked so hard for in order to keep her grandmother’s mysterious promise to a stranger? And is there really such a thing as love at first sight?
I’m not always a fan of dual timelines in historical fiction, but in the case of The Matchmaker’s Gift, this approach absolutely works.
In one timeline, we follow the story of Sara Glickman, a woman who emigrates to the United States in 1910 with her family, settling on New York’s Lower East Side. Sara realizes at age 10 that she has an unusual gift — she can “see” when two people are a match. First, she helps her sister find her bashert (soulmate, destined true love, the one that’s meant to be), and soon after, realizes she can see these connections for others as well.
The shadchanim (matchmakers) of the New York Jewish community are outraged — a young, unmarried girl has no business meddling in their business and potentially stealing their customers and their income. Sara swears to her father that she’ll give up matchmaking, but she’s unable to entirely ignore her calling and the good that she brings about.
In the other timeline (in the 1990s), we meet Sara’s granddaughter Abby, an associate in a prestigious divorce law firm who grew up scarred by her own parents’ divorce and is determined to make sure other women have the support her own mother lacked. When Abby learns of her beloved grandmother’s death, she’s grief-stricken — but she’s also inspired by Sara’s journals, which provide meticulous records of all the matches Sara made over the years. She’s also a little freaked out, though, when she starts seeing the same sort of connections that her grandmother once saw.
There’s so much to love about The Matchmaker’s Gift. In Sara’s part of the story, not only do we get to know what a strong and dedicated person she is, but we also get a beautifully written depiction of life in the Jewish community of the Lower East Side in the early 20th century. The characters, the environment, the traditions — all are brought lovingly to life.
Abby’s storyline, while more modern and perhaps less picturesque, still vibrates with a sense of New York in that time period. Abby interacts with characters from various walks of life through her work and through unexpected connections that come about after her grandmother’s passing, and it’s fascinating to see all the various ways that these people intersect and overlap.
I was particularly moved when Abby discovers that Sara came back to her matchmaking vocation in the postwar years of the late 1940s, when rabbis came to her to ask her help with making sure the Jewish people could survive after the devastation of the Holocaust. Sara saw it as her mission to bring together refugees and survivors, and it’s so powerful to read about. In fact, I wish this section of the story was explored in more detail — it’s not central to the plot, more something that’s filled in as a piece of Sara’s history, but it’s really beautiful.
Also very powerful is the information that later on in her life, Sara’s gift occasionally led her to see damaged connections, allowing her recognize an abusive marriage and help the woman escape and start over. Again, I might have liked to see more of this element of Sara’s gift, but the fact that’s it’s included at all made a big impression.
On a funny note, reading this book made me think of the Netflix series Jewish Matchmaking, and in the author’s notes, she mentions having consulted with Aleeza Ben Shalom — who is the host of the Netflix series!
Overall, I found The Matchmaker’s Gift to be very readable, engaging, and touching. Highly recommended!
Bookshelf Fantasies 