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Based closely on author Elizabeth Graver’s personal family history, Kantika follows Rebecca Cohen, the daughter of Sephardic Turkish Jews from Istanbul, through 20th century turmoil and unexpected displacement. The historical scope interwoven is rich, drawing parallels with the terrible scourge which the Jews experienced in Spain in the 13th Century, creating the diaspora in Turkey by those who left and who refused Christian conversion.

Written in present tense, the movement of time over the sixty years is oddly dream-like; the elements of grief, hardship, shock and revulsion are narrated almost dispassionately- the aftermath of tragedies deep, yet stories meant to be told.

I felt that this was a lament, a book of sorrows. Joy was always couched in past losses and covered with worry for the future. An uncomfortable inheritance-

Always intense, challenging to read at times- I put the book aside just to recuperate a little between chapters- very well written, and obviously from a deep part of the author’s heart.