This Is a Love Story

This Is a Love Story is a work of literary fiction by Jessica Soffer. Originally published by Dutton in February 2025, the novel is a Read With Jenna Book Club Pick and a New York Times Best Seller. Written from multiple points of view, This Is a Love Story is an ode to living and falling in love in New York City. The novel traces Abe and Jane’s relationship over the course of their marriage, incorporating Abe’s student Alice’s perspective and Abe and Jane’s son Max’s perspective into the couple’s overarching storyline. The novel toys with conventional notions of linearity and plot and explores themes including The Role of Art in Shaping Identity, Memory as a Form of Intimacy and Connection, and The Evolution of Love and Relationships.

This guide refers to the 2025 Dutton hardcover edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of death, illness, mental illness, pregnancy loss, and rape.

Plot Summary

This Is a Love Story is written from the first-, second-, and third-person points of view and does not abide by a chronological plot progression. This summary follows a chronologically linear structure for the sake of clarity.

In 1970, Abe and Jane meet in New York City. Abe is from a Jewish family, and Jane’s late mother immigrated to the United States from Iraq. They fall in love shortly after meeting and begin to merge their lives. Decades later, Jane has cervical cancer, and the couple reflects on the life they’ve built and shared.

At the start of Abe and Jane’s relationship, Jane is fully devoted to her life as an artist. Abe works for his father’s business and enjoys writing but doesn’t imagine that he’ll become a full-time author. However, Jane constantly encourages Abe to take his writing more seriously. She sees art as a way to express, question, and explore, and she wants to share her life with someone who values creation in the same way. Abe buys a brownstone in Manhattan, located along Central Park, and she agrees to move in if he agrees to leave his father’s business and devote himself to his writing.

As Abe struggles to establish himself as a writer, Jane’s artistic pursuits find success in the art world. Galleries around the city show her drawings, paintings, and sculptures, and she begins to sell her pieces. Then, Jane gets pregnant. She never imagined becoming a mother because she didn’t think it would be possible—her mother died of cervical cancer when Jane was a little girl.

Before she can adjust to the idea of motherhood, Jane loses the pregnancy. She decides that she wants to try for another child and gets pregnant again. Throughout her pregnancy, she feels fuzzy and disoriented. She isn’t able to work and hopes that her child’s birth will end her discomfort. However, after Max is born, Jane has prolonged postpartum depression. She is afraid to be alone with the baby and feels uncertain that she can care for him properly. Abe’s mother, Bubbe, assumes the role of Max’s primary caretaker.

While Jane avoids her studio and closes herself in her room, Abe invests in his writing and his new job teaching fiction writing at the college level. He publishes many short stories and several novels and now sees writing as a major facet of his life.

After Max’s birth, a young woman named Alice is a student in one of Abe’s writing courses. Alice becomes attached to Abe because she has fallen in love with his writing. She seeks out one-on-one time with him, staying after class to talk or showing up at his office hours. Over time, Abe develops feelings for Alice, and they begin to see each other outside the academic context.

One day, Abe visits Alice at her apartment, and they share a passionate kiss. Abe pulls away and leaves, insisting that he can’t be with her. In the months and years following, Alice gives up on writing altogether. The only time she contacts Abe after their kiss is to leave her short story about their relationship in his office mailbox.

Abe tells Jane about his affair on the same day that she is diagnosed with cervical cancer. She has just gotten back into her artwork and doesn’t know how to process this life-changing news. However, Abe’s confession keeps her from telling him about her diagnosis and increases the distance she’s already been feeling in her marriage. When she finally tells Abe about her diagnosis, the two begin to make amends as they pursue treatment options together.

Years later, Abe and Jane’s son, Max, is living and working in the city. His parents have moved to Orient, New York, and he rarely sees them. He knows that Jane is sick again and that Abe wants to see him but avoids his parents. Instead, he spends his time working as an art dealer, attending yoga classes, and sleeping with a string of women.

One day, he meets and goes on a date with an alluring woman named Jaclyn. He’s more intrigued by her than he has been by any woman before but hesitates to commit to her. He therefore panics when Jaclyn reveals that she’s pregnant. When she loses the pregnancy, Max feels guilty and relieved at the same time.

In the meantime, Abe and Jane anticipate Jane’s death. In the days and hours before she passes away, they continue to recollect their life together. After Jane breathes her last breath, Abe takes a walk in Central Park, where he interacts with a dog named Jane.