The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Taubes, Susan. Divorcing. New York Review Books, 2020.

Divorcing is divided into four parts and tells the story of Sophie Blind as she is in the process of divorcing her husband, Ezra Blind, and recalling the events of her life to write her novel.

Divorcing begins with Sophie awaking in the morning, unable to determine exactly where she is or in what period of her life she currently exists. The narration switches to the first person, in which Sophie states for herself directly that she has died after being struck by a car and decapitated in Paris. A letter written to her lover in New York reveals that Sophie has immediate plans to visit New York after giving a talk on Spinoza in Amsterdam.

Sophie’s marriage to Ezra is then told, describing Ezra’s patterns of emotional manipulation, their itinerant lifestyle across Europe, the birth of their children, and Ezra’s routine love affairs. After some time, Sophie announces her desire to separate from Ezra. Sophie and her children move to an apartment in Paris.

The narration then provides a succession of vignettes that are hallucinatory, dreamlike, and surreal in nature. Sophie is depicted in her coffin in the morgue while Ezra argues with the authorities in Paris over restrictions regarding Sophie’s remains. She is then depicted lying in her coffin during a ceremony that resembles a wake. The narration then returns to depicting more realistic events. There follows a succession of vignettes describing Sophie visiting her lover in New York, meeting with her friend, Kate Dallas, and discussing philosophy with a man named Johann who is trying to seduce her. The end of Part One leaves off with Sophie’s enigmatic commitment to repeating her mother’s life, and writing her novel.

The beginning of Part Two describes the history of Sophie’s family in Hungary. Her father’s side of the family is a well-known Jewish family of highly esteemed rabbis. Her mother’s side of the family is of a more modest background. Sophie’s mother and aunt are known in Budapest for their beauty and capricious behavior. Sophie’s father first is engaged to Sophie’s aunt, Rosa. But after she leaves him, he marries Sophie’s mother, Kamilla, who has just divorced the Transylvanian noble, Count Csaba-Csaba. Sometime after her marriage to Rudolf, Kamilla gives birth to Sophie.

Sophie is then described visiting her father’s house in Garfield, New Jersey, where she spent her adolescence and high school years. During this visit Sophie reflects on her life, and the circumstances surrounding her marriage to Ezra.

After this, another surreal episode takes place in which Sophie is on trial in her coffin before a jury of rabbis who are debating the morality of her actions, whether or not she is alive, and whether or not she will be granted her divorce from Ezra. It is determined that Sophie will be granted her divorce after the jury is unable to determine whether Sophie is alive or dead.

After her divorce from Ezra is finalized, Sophie has the freedom to recall events from her past. Her passage from Europe to America on the S.S. Aquitania is given, and her early years in Pittsburgh are described. The narrative then describes Sophie’s childhood in Budapest, splitting spending time with her mother and father, who are divorced. The novel then describes Sophie’s visits as an adult to her father in Garfield, and to her mother who also now lives in America, but apart from Rudolf. She reflects on her relationship with her parents, finding that both relationships are wanting in satisfaction.

In the final part of the novel, Sophie is visited by her children in New York. She is exasperated by the constant stream of unrelated questions. Her answers to their questions are non-committal. At the end of the novel, Sophie awakes in New York with plans to fly to Paris that morning.