Kantika (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781250869845)

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.

Author: Elizabeth Graver
ISBN-10: 1250869846
ISBN-13: 9781250869845
Publisher: Metropolitan Books
Language: English
Published: 04/18/2023
Pages: 304
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.03lbs
Size: 9.44h x 6.52w x 1.14d

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 02/13/2023
Booklist 03/01/2023 pg. 32
Kirkus Reviews 03/15/2023
Library Journal 03/31/2023 pg. 1
Shelf Awareness 04/21/2023