I loved Kantika!! I feel like I learned so much about the Sephardic Jewish community and the story's formatting played out into such a gorgeous tapestry of generations of the Cohen family. I feel so fortunate to have been selected to read an advance, physical copy (from the publisher) and have the added bonus of receiving the audiobook from NetGalley. What a treat Gail Shalan's narration is to listen to while driving or cleaning. Her narration brings the characters of Kantika to life and then some! From the difficult pronunciations of words from foreign languages, to delightful singing, the narration by Shalan is top tier! The story spans from Instanbul to Barcelona, then a brief stop in Havana, and eventually New York. The characters, specifically Rebecca and her young family, face difficult challenges with the moves, the relationships, and building a life together, a life Rebecca always dreamed of having. The book explores physical/mental disabilities, suffering due to the effects of war, motherhood, blended families, and so much rich culture! Rebecca is tough as nails but she is also soft and kind in her mothering and also as a wife. Her children (ALL of them) are her greatest source of pride and her second husband is the partner she never knew she needed. This book is a masterpiece and a work of art in itself; the narration is simply an upgrade, a beautiful upgrade to the writing. I did a little bit of research on the author and this story and I am pleased to learn that the story is based on the author's maternal grandmother.

5 out of 5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Metropolitan Books as well as Dreamscape Media for the advance audiobook to Kantika. It was a pleasure!

This has been such an emotional read. Being an immigrant myself I understand all the difficulties they face. The cultural references the multi city scenes makes the book so colourful. I loved everything about this book from narration to story to characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for gifting me an ALC of Kantika by Elizabeth Graver and narrated by Gail Shalan. In exchange I offer my unbiased review.

I really enjoyed this multi generational family saga set in Turkey, Spain and the United States at the beginning of the 20th century. We follow the Cohen Family, Sephardic Jews who are deeply committed to their faith and community. This book is filled with heart and heartbreak, love, longing, identity, displacement and ultimately belonging. Learning this book is based on the author’s family made it even more engaging. I found the audio narration outstanding and it really elevated my overall reading experience. While this book is Holocaust adjacent, it is NOT another WWII story. I appreciated learning about the Sephardic Jewish communities of Istanbul and Barcelona and the prejudices and religious persecution they faced.
My only disappointment was this book felt a bit overwritten at times and some paragraphs felt repetitive but overall this book was compelling and educational.

A multidimensional look on a family through many lens. Too few sometimes for the reader to keep track of and sometimes too many. Yet it is a heartfelt story that ends up being a book that you would remember. It is not the greatest book out there in the niche part of books it lies in, but far away from the worst too. It is a good book and a worthwhile read. Definitely check it out.

Kantika

Wow! What an amazing family saga. Spanning the globe from Istanbul to Barcelona, Cuba, and then finally New York, Rebecca’s story was absolutely haunting and beautiful.

The introductory author’s note about the basis for this novel clued me in that I was about to be treated to something special. To go into the novel knowing that it was based on the author’s own family history and her grandmother’s experience as a Sephardic Jewish immigrant brought so much richness to my reading.

I started reading a physical copy of Kantika and was pleasantly surprised to see family photographs at the start of each chapter. Graver’s writing is evocative and lyrical, but also quite guttural. The beginning of the story almost felt like a fever dream to me. Rebecca’s early years with her friend Lika and her visiting her father’s first wife, Djentil sometimes felt a little muddled. As Rebecca ages the story seemed more coherent and I was able to follow along a bit easier. I transitioned to audio at the halfway point and found this to be a more enjoyable reading experience (although I still enjoyed looking at the photographs in my physical copy).

Her family’s displacement to Barcelona and her journey to America was so powerful. I also adored Rebecca’s commitment to Luna, her step daughter with cerebral palsy. Rebecca’s strength and resilience play front and center throughout this story and Graver’s homage to her grandmother and family history was beautifully done.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ for Kantika

Thank you to the publisher @henryholtbooks and to @netgalley for both the physical and audio copies. I so enjoyed this family story.

A beautiful story of family, place, love and loss. The writing was rich and engaging and I loved being introduced to the many characters across different countries.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for the audio book, free of charge, in exchange for an honest review. This is narrated by Gail Shalan, who does a lovely job! Highly recommend the audio book!

As the synopsis describes, this is a sweeping, multi-generational story of a Sephardic Jewish family spanning Turkey, Spain, and the US from the start of the 20th century through the end of WWII. If you are a fan of historical fiction, this is a delight and so different from other books in that genre.

Not knowing much about Sephardic Jews at the turn of the last century, I found the story offered a different perspective of Jewish life prior to WWII. The book follows the hills and valleys of Rachel Cohen and her family as they move from Turkey to Spain and later, the US. The prose is lush and lyrical.

Overall, I really enjoyed the familial stories and getting to know the characters, the intertwining of their journeys. The author does a great job not only building up the characters but also helping the reader to immersively follow in the different cities as they traveled.

Overall, a wonderful read! Highly recommend!

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.

This was a beautiful story of Jewish heritage and one woman's story whose heritage is at the heart of who she is. Rebecca is the daughter of a wealthy Jewish merchant in Istanbul. Educated and a talented seamstress, Rebecca's talent and ability to speak Turkish, French, Ladino and some Spanish allows her to prosper independently. When Rebecca is a teenager, they lose all of their wealth, and Turkey begins to change. They are allowed to start again in Barcelona, and the family takes it. Rebecca also finds work as a seamstress and eventually realizes that the best business is by setting up her own shop, which she successfully does. She gets married, has two children, loses her husband and is given another chance with her deceased best friend's husband. In marrying him, she allowed entrance to the United States via Cuba and made a place for herself in New York. It gives her sons more opportunities when they finally get to the U.S. Her marriage brings her the most significant challenge, her step-daughter, Luna. Luna is disabled, but Rebecca is determined to give Luna the most autonomy she can, which means getting an education, getting married and having a family if that is what she desires. It is a story about love, family, spirituality and diaspora.

This was such a unique, epic tale that spanned the 20th century. I read a lot of historical fiction and some of the stories tend to tread common ground or resonate one to the other. Whenever I encounter a unique perspective with different experiences, it’s always a delight! In this tale, we follow a Sephardic family from Constantinople to Barcelona to Cuba to New York City over the course of the 20th century. In that backdrop, Rebecca navigates the societal constraints of being a Jewish woman, wife & mother, embracing her own agency every step of the way.
Kudos to Gail Shahan for her wonderful narration.
*Thanks to Metropolitan books and NetGalley for this advance audio copy for review

Rebecca Cohen is a happy young girl in 1907 Constantinople. Her contented world is turned upside down with the coming Great War, forcing her Sephardic Jewish family into a move to Barcelona, where they try desperately to regain their feet and build a new foundation. Rebecca's first marriage is troubled — though her two sons are a blessing — and she struggles to raise them alone, working as a respected and talented seamstress. Rebecca's second marriage is much happier and takes her from Spain to New York, with a short detour in Cuba, where she settles in with her new husband's family and his disabled daughter, Luna. Rebecca faces challenge after challenge throughout her life with grace, strength, and an enduring love for her family and friends.

This is a beautifully written novel with rich characters and a lot of emotional impact. I much enjoyed Rebecca's intricate journey through life, empathizing with her successes as well as her losses. Her relationship with Luna was especially complex and interesting to see from both of their points of view, making it my favorite component of the narrative. The pace of this book is pretty fast, speeding through such a full life in only a few hours, and I highly recommend it to any and all fans of rich historical fiction.

Thank you to Elizabeth Graver, Metropolitan Books, Dreamscape Media, and NetGalley for my advance physical and audio copies.

An ornate linguistic journey, that explores what it means to be “from a place” and what matters most is the people around us. The story begins with two young girls who are the best of friends until they are separated by geography and through a pattern like intricate lace their lives and families are woven back together many years later.

Rebecca is a kindred spirit of mine, with gypsy blood and pride in her children, who is excited when she moves to New York, to discover the great American invention called the “rummage sale”.
The audio version enhances the story with the nuanced pronunciation of multiple languages and sweet songs. The talented narrator, Gail Shalan, expertly differentiates the tone of the various characters whose points of view are expressed in each chapter with the musical cadence of a loving lullaby.

The elaborate descriptions of several settings span the globe, and ethnic traditions are stitched together through generations. It is a complicated layering of lattice that grows and progresses over Rebecca and her children’s lifetimes, where she reminds them that they’ve only got one life to live, so make the one you’ve got count.

Thank you @NetGalley and @Dreamscape_Media for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.