Kantika, by Elizabeth Graver (2023)
Although billed as a novel, Kantika is tightly based on the life of the author’s grandmother, Rebecca Cohen Baruch Levy. The book spans from 1907 to 1950. Rebecca was a young girl born to wealthy Jewish parents in Constantinople. At the time of her birth, Jews, Muslims and Christians lived in a relative peaceful environment. She even attended a Catholic school, where she spoke French. She was also fluent in Ladino and Turkish. After the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the family lost its wealth and Turkey became increasingly hostile to its Jewish citizens. The family was forced to leave Turkey to seek employment elsewhere. Her father found a menial job at a synagogue in Barcelona, Spain, where echoes of the Inquisition were still resonating. They had a very uneasy life in Spain. Rebecca set up a dress-making business and married one of the few single Jewish men in her community. It was an unhappy marriage; her husband was basically a good-for-nothing. He returned to his family home in Turkey, ostensibly to find employment married, and was gone for so long, that Rebecca took their two young sons to be reunited with him. Once there, she learned that he had died.
Rachel ultimately was invited to immigrate to the United States to marry the widower of her best friend. To meet her potential new husband, she must go through Cuba, but leave her young sons with family back in Spain. That way, she figured, that if she didn’t like her proposed intended, she could more easily return to Spain. Upon her second marriage, she also gained a disabled stepdaughter, Luna. Her husband’s family was content to let Luna be, but Rebecca saw the girl had potential, despite her handicap.
Rebecca and her new husband, Sam, set up a life in New York with her two sons, his daughter, and eventually have three children of their own, one of whom was the author’s mother.
Kantika is Ladino for song. This book was a beautiful song.
Read: July 15, 2023
4.5 Stars
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