Liquid

Shortlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize

"Incisive... a whirlwind homage to the classic 'ridiculous first date' trope... sharp cultural criticism, particularly on dating and adulthood. Fans of Elif Batuman ought to take note."-- Publishers Weekly

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.

Mariam Rahmani is a writer and translator. Her recent novel Liquid has been shortlisted for the Center For Fiction First Novel Prize. Her translation from Farsi of Mahsa Mohebali's In Case of Emergency was a New Yorker Best Book of 2022, while her translation of Farzaneh Milani's biography of the midcentury poet Forugh Farrokhzad is forthcoming with Liveright fall 2026. Her work has appeared in Granta, New York Magazine, n+1, and elsewhere.