This sweeping, multi-generational narrative delves into the history of a Sephardic family, drawing inspiration from the author’s own lineage. It unfolds across three distinct locales—Turkey, Spain, and the United States—unfurling its tale from the dawn of the 20th century to the close of World War II.

The story commences in Istanbul during the early 1900s, introducing readers to Rebecca Cohen, who grows up in a loving family in a vibrant city. Her father, a respected figure, provides the family with a life of affluence. Despite being raised in a household that observes the Sabbath and embraces Jewish traditions and celebrations, Rebecca and her siblings attend a Catholic school. However, as challenging times descended upon Istanbul, Jewish families began to migrate elsewhere. Rebecca’s closest friend and her family set their sights on America, specifically New York, a destination that Rebecca yearns for her family to embrace. Yet, her father remains steadfast, resistant to the idea of relocation until he loses his wealth. It is then that Rebecca’s family faces a path they never anticipated—forced displacement to Barcelona, Spain.

The narrative paints a vivid tapestry with its exquisite details, transporting readers to a bygone era and locations, accompanied by a captivating cast of characters. The author masterfully resurrects a lost time and place, infusing the story with a host of extraordinary individuals.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for sending a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley.

I found this book too slow for my taste and ultimately did not get past 25%.

As a Jewish person, I am always glad to see books about Jewish culture. This book though is hard to read because it contains so mu;ch description and very little plot. It reminds me a great deal of Russian authors where the plot is so subtle that it is almost nonexistent. It seems like two different people wrote the book, one wrote the description and the one that was supposed to write the plot took a nap.

Beautifully written based on her families history their lives as Sephardic Jews.Their travels their story.I was swept away from first to last page. #Netgalley #kantika

I love a good meaty saga and this one is very special as it is a Jewish Sephardic family and we get a rare taste of what their lives were like as they found refuge in different locations. I loved the descriptions of their neighborhoods, homes, and customs. If you have an interest in Sephardic Jews, don't miss this one!

Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book. It's a lovely layered saga!

I really enjoyed reading about a Jewish family who lived in Turkey, moved to Spain, then a visit to Cuba and on to New York. So much upheaval, anti semitism, love, and more. Very interesting. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

This book enticed me about a story told over generations. It is the story of Rebecca, a young girl who grew up and came to America and raised a family in the midst of one of the world’s great wars. It was a book full of love and inspiration and anguish. It was life as she lived it and you felt right there experiencing every moment. It was an awesome journey and this book is highly recommended.

In Ladino, Kantika means song. Graver’s prose and familial story sings across continents and generations tracing the Sephardic family of Rebecca Cohen from Istanbul to Barcelona to Havana and NYC. Elizabeth Graver uses actual family photos to show how the family strived, endured, and made a life for themselves given whatever circumstances arose. Her descriptions of places involve all the senses. Her compassion for her characters enables them to be true to themselves as the generational story unfolds from the early 1900 to post WWII. Mesmerizing and evocative. Highly recommended. Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing this title.

This book was based on the author's family history. I did not find it compelling. I had a difficult connecting to the characters in the book. The writing was not to my liking.

Kantika is a beautiful multi-generational saga following a Sephardic family through Istanbul, Spain and the US. Most definitely a wonderful read with very rich details. However, I struggled to get into the book. It wasn't until halfway through the novel, that I really felt as if it picked up.
Thank you netgalley for the ARC

As soon as I saw this book, I knew I wanted to read it. I’ve been coming across more Jewish stories, but haven’t found very many that talk about the Sephardic or Mizrahi experience. I really wanted to get my hands on a copy of this book and requested both the ebook and audiobook versions, and was very surprised when I got approved for both of them.

Much like Ashkenazi Jews, those who spent their diaspora in Eastern Europe, spoke Yiddish, Sephardic Jews also had their own language—Ladino. I’m not familiar with Ladino, but there is a lot of it used throughout this book. All of the Ladino terms are clearly defined in the book, but this is where having the audiobook was especially beneficial, because Gail Shaver, the narrator, did a fantastic job of pronouncing not only Ladino terms, but also French and making them accessible. In addition, there is a focus on songs in the story, and Shaver demonstrates her beautiful singing voice in the audiobook, and I’d have expected nothing less from a book whose title means song.

The story starts when Rebecca is very young, living with her family in Istanbul, Turkey, in 1907. They live a comfortable life, attend a Catholic school, and live in relative peace with their Catholic and Muslim neighbors. However, they tend to stick with the other Jews, and Rebecca’s childhood is a fairly happy one, spent with her best friend. But as things around them change, her father hears of a chance for them to return to Spain, where there family came from before they lived in Turkey. He takes advantage of the opportunity, and the family moves to Barcelona.

However, the Alhambra Decree of 1492, which expelled all practicing Jews from Spain, is still in effect, and no Jews are viewed as citizens of Spain, even if they are born there. This law wasn’t officially revoked until 1968.

While Rebecca and her family were allowed to live and worship as Jews in Spain, they are reluctant to advertise their Jewishness. They keep quiet about it and try to integrate into Spanish society as best they can, in order to avoid drawing attention and negative consequences. The story is told increasingly through Rebecca’s POV as she matures, and marries.

Ultimately, we follow Rebecca and her family through ups and downs, in this very much character-driven story. Normally I prefer a plot-driven story, but I was fascinated not just by what was going on in Rebecca’s life, but also what life was like for Sephardic Jews in the diaspora, especially how different it could be from country to country and in different periods of time.

I also think it’s important to mention that there’s a major character in the story who has a disability, and that this occurs in the 1930s, when accessibility and services weren’t a priority, or in some cases, even available. When Rebecca first meets Luna, her new disabled stepdaughter, the girl is being treated as a baby and infantilized, despite the fact that she isn’t a baby and has a physical disability rather than a developmental disability. But since Rebecca is a strong-willed woman and believes that Luna is capable of so much more than the others think. I loved Rebecca’s forward thinking and modern take on Luna’s capacities, and the way that she works with her to strengthen and build her skills, as well as her self-esteem.

Ultimately, this is a fascinating and layered family saga about love, family, trust, overcoming obstacles, and finding job or making it yourself when you can’t find it. The women in this story are all so incredibly strong, and it was so interesting to learn more about the Sephardic experience, but also to see the similarities and not just the differences. Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of this story was the way it’s inspired by the author’s own grandmother, Rebecca Cohen Baruch Levy, and there are family photographs included at the start of nearly every chapter. This is absolutely a book not to miss.

Kantika is a multigenerational story of the Cohen family, Sephardic Jews fleeing persecution throughout Europe and America in the early 1900s. I found the writing style very unique, almost dream-like — the publisher’s description calls it “kaleiodoscopic,” and I think that is absolutely spot on.


Kantika was rich with history and ambitious in scope. It’s based on the author’s own family, too, and you can tell that first-hand recollections and experiences went into the writing. Even things as simple as the descriptions of colors and foods, and the bits of Ladino language dropped along the way, ring with authenticity.


It took me a little bit to settle in to this story and its cast of characters, I think partially because from the book’s summary I expected it to be largely single-character focused, and in reality it’s much more of an ensemble (especially during the first half or so). The perspectives of so many characters recounting similar time periods could be a little dizzying at the start. But as the novel progresses, those various perspectives are critical to achieving the emotional depth of the story. Hearing different characters’ unspoken hopes, fears, and motivations is what opens up a whole other layer of meaning in this family drama, and the various voices all contribute to the feelings of displacement, longing, rootlessness, and regret.


A beautiful debut about the meaning of “home” and the struggle of building a new life for your family. Thanks to Henry Holt & Company, the author, and NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Dazzling. Lyrical. Moving. Elizabeth Graver’s new novel, Kantika, is all of these and more. It is the incredibly well written story of a Jewish Sephardic family, loosely based on the author’s own family, beginning in Istanbul in the early part of the 20th century, moving to Spain and ending in America in the 1950s.

I found myself totally absorbed in the story of Rebecca and her family, and had a hard time putting the book down for meals or sleep. The author just drew me into the world of the Jewish community of Istanbul, bringing it to vivid life with all its customs and traditions. Rebecca is so skillfully drawn by the author that I became emotionally invested in her story. In actuality, all the family members are well developed. And the writing is flat out wonderful. There were passages that just spoke to me with their beauty.

Kantika is not only a a unique look at a Jewish community that no longer exists, it is also the moving story of a family that has endured through all of its struggles.

Highly recommended.

My many thanks to the publisher and to Netgalley for providing an ARC of this wonderful novel.

A sweeping, multi-generational story of a Sephardic family (based on the author's own family) spanning Turkey, Spain, and the US from the start of the 20th century through the end of WWII.

This was an ambitions novel, and I ended up enjoying it!

The book mainly follows Rebecca, but over the course of the book we see a couple different generations trying their best to build–and hold together–their families in the face of loss, migration, war, and marginalization. The book opens in Constantinople in 1907 with Rebecca's mother Sultana raising her young family in the vibrant Mediterranean city. As the tone shifts and attitudes towards the Jewish population turn sour they leave for Spain, the city that centuries earlier would have been considered their homeland. But there too, things are uncertain, and Rebecca eventually makes her way over to the US where she is next to raise her own young family into adulthood.

I'm not a big historical fiction person normally, but I did get drawn in by the focus on a Sephardic Jewish family. It took me a bit of time to get into this book, truth be told, but I really got drawn in during the second half of the book after leaving Spain.

Overall, I really enjoyed getting to know the characters, how their lives and paths intertwined, their inner lives vs how they presented themselves to others. I loved the descriptions of the different cities they traveled through, especially Istanbul/Constantinople. I thought the writing was very good, with some particularly impactful standout lines (eg, "splitting chicken breasts in one blow with a steel cleaver. Is that bone-cracking rage on top of grief?")

My favorite narration perspective that we got was from Luna–I thought her perspective as someone with a physical disability in that time period was particularly interesting and engaging. How she and Rebecca interpreted their relationship in such different ways was a compelling dynamic and those were the parts where I found myself glued to the book.

Because I had a hard time getting into the beginning, but was feeling beautiful swells of emotion by the end, I think I'd average out to about a 3.75, rounded up to 4. I'd highly recommend this to people who enjoy multi-generational stories like Pachinko.

Thanks to NetGalley and Henry Holt & Company, Metropolitan Books for this ARC to read and review.

KANTIKA

Elizabeth Graver, Henry Holt, 2023, $27.99, hb, 304 pp, 978125086

“Kantika” means “song” in Ladino, the language spoken by the richly-drawn characters of this sweeping novel. Ladino is to Spanish as Yiddish is to German. And Ladino (or “Latin”) is a Judaeo-Old Spanish dialect dating from the expulsion of Sephardic Jews from Spain, over 500 years ago. From Spain they traveled mainly to eastern Mediterranean countries like Turkey, where this family-centered story begins in 1907, set in Constantinople (as it was then). In the twentieth century, more travel awaits them. Unmoored by poverty and threatening world events, the Cohen family takes refuge first in Barcelona, then Cuba, and finally the United States.
Wherever they go, they carry faith, culture, music, survival skills, and love along with them—especially Rebecca, the engaging main character, whose life we follow through the first half of the twentieth century, from her privileged girlhood in Turkey to poverty and discrimination in Spain, followed by a brief romantic interlude in Cuba, and finally ending in middle-class America. Along the way she acquires two husbands and six children.
Graver based Kantica on her own family history, including actual names and photographs that work surprisingly well paired with meticulous research and lyrical prose. She has created fiction that’s satisfyingly anchored in reality. Occasionally we move from Rebecca’s consciousness to that of other family members, including memorable portraits of Rebecca’s father, her oldest son, and her physically challenged and emotionally challenging stepdaughter, Luna. Settings, all beautifully evoked, range from exotic Constantinople and Havana to a modest candy store in Astoria.
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

This book is all over the place--literally! Turkey, Spain, Cuba, the U.S. [Constantinople/Istanbul, Barcelona, Adrianople, Havana, Astoria, Cambria Heights]

"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."

And so it begins.

Highly original and interspersed with photos from the author's family--the acknowledgements reveals how Graver kept some names the same, as well as parts of their stories--which were inspired by the true story of her maternal grandmother Rebecca [who is the driving force/heroine of the novel].


How I wish there had been a glossary!
Kantika is a song; and Rebecca often sings.
Bonjuk--the name of the traditional, Turkish blue bead guarding against the evil-eye.
And many more other words.

There is much about how being Jewish affected their life in Spain [after losing their fortune in Turkey and moving to much lesser circumstances].

Rebecca emigrates to the US--as a young widow, conditionally going to meet her [new] future husband; a return to Spain was always possible. She was leaving her parents and her two young sons, but had money for a return sewn into her clothing. The transition was extremely difficult. Consider--marrying the widower of your best friend, Lika. And, becoming a mother to her disabled daughter, Luna. Add in a new land, a new language, new relatives, new everything. Rebecca's struggles--both financially and emotionally--form much of the narrative. But, Rebecca is a force of nature--determined to reunite her family and help Luna become more self-sufficient.

A few very laughs and at times, I nearly cried.

And, I loved the old photographs.

Recommend.

I love generational stories and this was no exception. I learned a lot about Sephardic Jews and flew through this book. A wonderful read!

Thank you NetGalley for the chance to read and review this ARC.

I really enjoyed this novel loosely based on the author's family. Not knowing much about Sephardic Jews at the turn of the last century I found it very interesting. The book follows the fortunes and misfortunes of Rachel Cohen and her family as they move from Turkey to Spain and the US. Chapters are often told from the viewpoint of one Rachel's family members which creates a more well-rounded story. The prose is lush and lyrical and in parts almost stream of conscious. There is not a lot of dialogue. I found that the story picks up towards the second half of the book as we see Rachel taking more action to shape her life, rather than her experiences in the beginning of the novel as a young woman who has few choices . Definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys stories about the immigrant experience, family sagas, and Jewish history.