Liquid

Shortlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize Two years after earning a PhD from UCLA, the narrator of Liquid stand achingly far from the middle-class comfort promised by her education and the successes of her immigrant parents. Jokingly, her best friend, Adam, suggests she just marry rich. Taking this challenge seriously, armed with a spreadsheet, she sets off on a whirlwind summer of one hundred dates with rich Angelenos/as.

But when a family emergency takes her to Tehran, it's a queer love interest and the possibility of a very different future that sustains her attention; now she must confront the contradictions of her life and decide which path she wants to follow. Exploding off the page with verve and originality, Liquid delivers a modern dating tale like no other.