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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.