Jennifer Vido: What inspired your new release, THE MATCHMAKER’S GIFT? Lynda Cohen Loigman: The spark for The Matchmaker’s Gift originated during the Covid-19 lockdown, when my daughter—then in her junior year of college—moved back home along with her roommate. Before they arrived, I’d gotten used being the only woman in a household of men. But with the addition of two outspoken, insightful, college-age women, the conversation around our dinner table shifted. We talked about what they were studying in their classes, but also about the challenges young women face: socially, academically, and in the professional world. That summer, our favorite lockdown television binge was the Netflix show Indian Matchmaking. At some point, my daughter’s roommate told us about her grandmother, who had worked as an orthodox Jewish matchmaker in Brooklyn. The New York Times had even run an article about her, back in the 1960’s. Suddenly, a multigenerational matchmaker book began to occupy my thoughts. As the story came together, I poured my frustration for all young women into its pages. The Matchmaker’s Gift became more than a story about love––it became a story about women whose intelligence, ambition, and gifts were suppressed, but who nonetheless found the strength to…