Kantika

By Elizabeth Graver

Book Overview

A dazzling Turkish 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 Baruch, feisty daughter of the Sephardic elite of Constantinople. When the Baruchs lose their wealth and are forced to move to Barcelona and live in impoverishment, Rebecca fashions a life and self from what comes her way--one failed marriage, one arranged marriage, stepchildren, and disability, but also passion and pleasure. Moving from Cuba to New York, Rebecca faces her greatest challenge--her stepdaughter, whose disability pits new family against old.

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

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1250869846
• ISBN13: 9781250869845
• Release Date: April 2023
• Publisher: Metropolitan Books
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.5" x 9.4"