Kantika - by Elizabeth Graver (Hardcover)

About the Book

"All photographs courtesy of the author from her family archives, with the exception of the two photographs on page 124, which are reprinted with permission of the National Center for Jewish Film. Page 288 photograph by Jack Levy."--Colophon

Book Synopsis

A dazzling Sephardic multigenerational saga that moves from Istanbul to Barcelona, Havana, and New York, exploring displacement, endurance, and family as home.

A kaleidoscopic portrait of one family's displacement across four countries, Kantika--"song" in Ladino--follows the joys and losses of Rebecca Cohen, feisty daughter of the Sephardic elite of early 20th-century Istanbul. When the Cohens lose their wealth and are forced to move to Barcelona and start anew, Rebecca fashions a life and self from what comes her way--a failed marriage, the need to earn a living, but also passion, pleasure and motherhood. Moving from Spain to Cuba to New York for an arranged second marriage, she faces her greatest challenge--her disabled stepdaughter, Luna, whose feistiness equals her own and whose challenges pit new family against old.

Exploring identity, place and exile, Kantika also reveals how the female body--in work, art and love--serves as a site of both suffering and joy. A haunting, inspiring meditation on the tenacity of women, this lush, lyrical novel from Elizabeth Graver celebrates the insistence on seizing beauty and grabbing hold of one's one and only life.

Review Quotes

Winner of the National Jewish Book Award
Winner of the Edward Lewis Wallant Award
Named a Best Historical Fiction Book and a Notable Book of 2023 by The New York Times
Named a Best Book of the Year by NPR, Lilith, and Libby
Winner of the Julia Ward Howe Prize
Winner of the Mass Book Award

"This exquisitely imagined family saga spans cultures and continents."
--New York Times, Editors' Choice & 100 Notable Books of 2023

"A highly readable and poignant tale of dislocation, refuge and resilience."
--NPR, Best Books of 2023

"In Graver's vision, migration is never simply a one-way street... Kantika is a meticulous endeavor to preserve the memories of a family, an elegy and a celebration both."
--Ayten Tartici, The New York Times

"An evocative exploration of cultural inheritances across generations, in particular Sephardic Jewish culture and its ability to endure through familial bonds, even when removed from physical location."
--Association of Jewish Libraries, named a Jewish Fiction Award honor book

"Graver delivers a luminous story of a Sephardic family. Fans of family epics will love this."
--Publishers Weekly

"Beautiful and lyrical. [Kantika] is a piece of transnational, century-spanning Jewish history."
--Kirkus Reviews

"A remarkable, lyrical work . . . Graver has written an elegant coming-of-age story that is also an epic of the Sephardi diaspora, spanning generations, wars, and continents."
--Sarah Abrevaya Stein, Jewish Review of Books

"Graver's paean to resolve and resiliency paints a vivid portrait of spirit and grit."
--Carol Haggas, Booklist

"Enigmatic and enticing . . . Graver crafts a compelling narrative, weaving in threads of religion and history, feminism and family dynamics, passion and duty, survival and love ."
--Katie Noah Gibson, Shelf Awareness

"Graver's characters are rendered so realistically that the reader aches as the world turns against them, but the ever-resourceful Rebecca perseveres."
--Reba Leiding, Library Journal, starred review

"The whole novel feels like the embodiment of the title, "Kantika"--Ladino for song. At the outset, Graver lyrically establishes the multilingual, multireligious, cosmopolitan, and yet concretely local and specific nature of Constantinople."
--The Jewish Chronicle, named a Best Jewish Book of the year

"Beautiful and lyrical. Kantika is a piece of transnational, century-spanning Jewish history."
--Karen Skinazi, Jewish Journal

"In the end, Kantika's heroine triumphs not in a larger-than-life way, but in a way that makes her feel relatable . . . We, too, are invited to enter into the story and make a place for ourselves."
--Nina B. Lichtenstein, Jewish Book Council, a Hanukkah 2023 Bookshelf pick

"Kantika, like the songs Rebecca sings, is full of sorrow and joy--and very beautiful."
--Rachel Hall, Lilith Magazine, one of Lilith's "Favorite Reads" of 2023

"Lyrical and literary, and likely, if there is any justice, to stand the test of time."
--Andrew Silow-Carroll, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, named one of the best Jewish books of 2023

"Intimately imagined, lyrically written, and rich with historical detail, Kantika weaves forced displacement, wild reinvention and triumphant healing into a big, border-crossing family saga. Marvelous!"
--Gish Jen, author of Thank You, Mr. Nixon

"Both epic and heartfelt, Kantika belongs in the company of the great twentieth-century immigrant Jewish writers, such as Saul Bellow, Cynthia Ozick, Grace Paley, and Henry Roth."
--Joshua Henkin, author of Morningside Heights

"Kantika is an acute and compassionate portrait of displacement and reinvention, and it sings."
--Michael Frank, author of One Hundred Saturdays: Stella Levi and the Search for a Lost World

"A gorgeous accomplishment. In intimate and inventive prose, Elizabeth Graver carries us to the vibrantly drawn streets of Constantinople, Barcelona, Havana and New York. We follow her remarkable characters through grief and hope, and into human connections as delicate as they are profound. This is a novel to get lost in."
--Rachel Kadish, author of The Weight of Ink

"This utterly captivating novel illuminates how one family's history is history. Astonishing work, reminiscent, to my mind, of the best of the great Italian writer Elsa Morante."
--Peter Orner, author of Maggie Brown & Others

"From the first page, I was swept up and carried along on the migrations of an unforgettable family. Kantika is a gripping story of 20th-century Sephardic exile and reinvention and the longing for homes, both old and new."
--Tova Mirvis, author of The Book of Separation

"In gorgeous detail, this epic family story restores a lost time and place. Kantika is both an immigrant tale and a hero's journey as Graver's extraordinary characters--first among them the indomitable Rebecca--travel between worlds and find ways to refashion their lives."
--Allegra Goodman, author of Sam

"Kantika is a beautiful, moving and splendidly entertaining evocation of a lost world. Elizabeth Graver looks back at family history with a novelist's eye and a poet's empathy."
--John Banville, author of The Singularities

"A story of immigration, tenacity, family bonds and change that sits in a liminal space between fact and fiction, making for fascinating reading."
--Jaime Herndon, Hadassah Magazine, named a Best Jewish Book of 2023

"[Kantika] is about a wealthy Turkish Jewish family whose fortunes are reversed by the First World War and whose members are dispersed to Barcelona, Cuba and finally New York. And yet while it has all the drama one might expect from such journeys and the novels about them, it remains both lyrical and literary, and likely, if there is any justice, to stand the test of time."
--Andrew Silow-Carroll, Jewish Telegraphic Agency

"Writing with such candor is a feat . . . A lush but unsentimental drama."
--The Forward

"A beautifully written story of loss and love, of survival and sanctuary, of a search for home and identity. At its heart, it is a story of family."
--Jennifer Huberdeau, The Berkshire Eagle

"Ladino music threads its way through the text and provides a constant, unifying metaphor for the novel: whether sad or joyous, sacred or secular, personal history or fiction, Kantika sings."
--Susan Lowell, Historical Novel Society, Editors' Choice

"Kantika is Elizabeth Graver's poignant homage to her grandmother, but it is also a testament to her talent as a storyteller, to make a narrative so believable and compelling, and, indeed, sometimes funny, just as it is in life."
--Roberta Silman, The Arts Fuse

"Graver's lyrical prose sets the tone for the impressive story she's about to tell."
--Susan Blumberg-Kason, Asian Review of Books

"The Sephardi woman has finally entered the literary conversation. I hope she's here to stay."
--Hannah Srour-Zackon, The Canadian Jewish News

About the Author

Elizabeth Graver's fourth novel, The End of the Point, was long-listed for the 2013 National Book Award and selected as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Her other novels are Awake, The Honey Thief, and Unravelling. Her story collection, Have You Seen Me?, won the 1991 Drue Heinz Literature Prize. Her work has been anthologized in Best American Short Stories, Best American Essays, and Prize Stories, the O. Henry Awards. She teaches at Boston College.