The Marriage Box
A Novel
by Corie Adjmi
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Pub Date May 02 2023 | Archive Date Apr 21 2023
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Description
NEW PUB DATE: May 2, 2023
Casey Cohen, a Middle Eastern Jew, is a sixteen-year-old in New Orleans in the 1970s when she starts hanging out with the wrong crowd. Then she gets in trouble—and her parents turn her whole world upside down by deciding to return to their roots, the Orthodox Syrian Jewish community in Brooklyn.
In this new and foreign world, men pray daily, thanking God they’re not women; parties are extravagant events at the Museum of Natural History; and the Marriage Box is a real place, a pool deck designated for teenage girls to put themselves on display for potential husbands. Casey is at first appalled by this unfamiliar culture, but after she meets Michael, she’s enticed by it. Looking for love and a place to belong, she marries him at eighteen, believing she can adjust to Syrian ways. But she begins to question her decision when she discovers that Michael doesn’t want her to go to college—he wants her to have a baby instead.
Can Casey integrate these two opposing worlds, or will she have to leave one behind in order to find her way?
Advance Praise
“The Marriage Box is a brilliant coming-of-age story that moves swiftly between the worlds of New Orleans and the Syrian Jewish community in NY. Our heroine, Casey, is flawed, kind and so vivid. We fall in love with her as she grapples to balance her need for independence with the comforts and constraints of tradition. I can’t remember when I last enjoyed a story so much: I laughed, I cried, I learned, and couldn’t wait to turn the page to find out what Casey was going to do next. The Marriage Box is an absolute delight!”
—Ariana Neumann, New York Times best-selling author of When Time Stopped and National Jewish Book Award and Dayton Literary Peace Prize winner
“Corie Adjmi’s fabulous novel The Marriage Box is an unputdownable tale of Old World traditions-meets-New World desires. Adjmi doesn’t hold back in this coming-of-age tale of a young woman who loses herself early on, shaped by a destructive past. The writing is rich, immersive, and seamless. You will root for Casey as she forges her own way in a patriarchal world. A must-read.”
—Lisa Barr, award-winning author of Woman on Fire, The Unbreakables, and Fugitive Colors
“Adjmi has written a fascinating story of culture and custom and the choices that go along with it. Compelling and compulsively readable; I found myself rooting for Casey Cohen as I flipped through the pages, finishing in one single sitting. A must-read.”
—Rochelle Weinstein, USA Today best-selling author of This Is Not How It Ends, Somebody's Daughter, Where We Fall, The Mourning After, and What We Leave Behind
“I couldn't put The Marriage Box down. Alternately funny and heart-wrenching, but always deftly observed, this is a fast-paced coming of age story that will stick with you.”
—Jen Spyra, author of Big Time and former staff writer for CBS’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Available Editions
EDITION | Other Format |
ISBN | 9781647420796 |
PRICE | $17.95 (USD) |
PAGES | 288 |
Available on NetGalley
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