Dated: A Novel [9780063495531]

Overview

“So sharp about politics and so funny and moving about the private hopes that live alongside it. The pages seem to turn themselves as Leah Abrams writes beautifully about wanting to be useful, wanting to be good, wanting to have answers, and wanting somebody to call when everything goes to hell. Wit, insight, and a deep affection for its characters suffuse this charming-ass debut. A novel to laugh out loud at—a novel to love.” - Sarah Thankam Mathews, author of All of This Could Be Different

"Tender, warm, and most importantly, funny; no novelist has better captured what it's like when your grandmother won't stop blowing up your phone with texts. Abrams has written an instantly memorable debut novel about the moral challenges of modern life, and the courage required to break away from tradition and pursue something new. I loved it." - Jeremy Gordon, author of See Friendship

A wickedly witty, defiantly poignant debut novel about a young progressive political staffer whose life is upended when her well-meaning but highly opinionated grandmother secretly impersonates her on JDate.

A childhood of Obama-era liberal idealism has led Sophie to a career in New York City politics, ready to follow the new mayor into the deepest pits of City Hall and to write for him the kinds of speeches that could bring thousands to their feet, roaring with approval and hope as a new era dawns. (And until then, at least, she would write the perfect tweets). But when the mayor takes a hard rightwing turn on rapidly escalating global conflicts, Sophie’s crisis of conscience snowballs; it’s already hard enough avoiding political conversations with her moderate parents, or shouting matches with her conservative grandmother, Irene, who has a deeply entrenched habit of dividing the world into things that are good for the Jews or bad for the Jews. And when Zaid, the most beautiful guy Sophie has ever seen, literally collides with her on his way to a protest against her boss, Sophie’s job begins to feel truly untenable.

Meanwhile, Irene—still trying to get a handle on widowhood, iPhones, and grandchildren who just don’t seem to want to accept how the world works—is determined to see Sophie nicely partnered up before she dies. So when she sets up a Jdate profile on Sophie’s behalf, she figures: why bother Sophie with it, when Irene can just start picking Sophie's perfect matches herself?

Sophie struggles with her job, her family, and her secret budding relationship with Zaid for months, all while Irene cheerfully impersonates her online—until all kinds of family secrets spills out at her brother Noah’s bar mitzvah, and the Gabelmans learn that even a new world order won’t necessarily fix the family.