A review of “Kantika”

A Jewish Book Festival book being presented Dec. 14

By Carole J Greene

Most of the Jews in the Greater Naples area trace their ancestry to the shtetls of Eastern Europe — the Ashkenazic diaspora. They are more familiar with Yiddish than with Ladino, the language of the Sephardic Jews — those hailing from the Mediterranean areas of the diaspora. For that reason, Elizabeth Graver’s latest novel, “Kantika,” offers illuminating keys that open doors to Sephardic culture and history.

Although it is a personal history drawn from actual events in the life of her own grandmother, this saga is so much more. Graver blurs the line between fact and fiction, utilizing the actual names of many of her mater nal ancestors while embellishing, where necessary, the details of their lives. As she puts it, “I changed facts to suit the story, imagined inner lives and invented liberally at every turn.”

“Kantika,” “song” in Ladino, paints a portrait of one family’s displacement across four continents. It revolves around her grandmother, Rebecca Cohen, who grows up as the feisty daughter of Sephardic elite in early 20th-century Istanbul. The collapse of the Ottoman empire spells the end of the family’s high status, and Cohen is forced to flee to whatever culture would have her: first Barcelona, then Havana and, finally, New York City. Each move presents new challenges that motivate Cohen to discover inner strengths, and readers to unspool an inspiring tale peppered with Ladino phrases to add to their other modes of Jewish expression.

Graver herself will explore more elements of this sensitive historical novel when she is the speaker at the second event of this season’s Greater Naples Jewish Book Festival. Hear her tell more of this fascinating story on Dec. 14 at 1 p.m. Tickets are $25, available through JewishBookFestival.org.