Elizabeth Graver

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Kantika

A dazzling Sephardic multi-generational saga that moves from Istanbul to Barcelona, Havana & New York, exploring displacement, endurance & family as home. Winner of a National Jewish Book Award, an Association of Jewish Libraries Fiction Award, the Edward Lewis Wallant Award, Massachusetts Book Award & Julia Ward Howe Prize.

"In Graver's vision, migration is never simply a one-way street . . . Kantika is a meticulous endeavor to preserve the memories of a family, an elegy and a celebration both."
—Ayten Tartici, The New York Times Book Review
"Both epic and heartfelt, Kantika belongs in the company of the great twentieth-century immigrant Jewish writers, such as Saul Bellow, Cynthia Ozick, Grace Paley, and Henry Roth."
—Joshua Henkin, author of Morningside Heights
"This exquisitely imagined family saga spans cultures and continents."
—New York Times Book Review "Best Historical Novels of 2023," Editor's Choice, & Notable Book of the Year

"Kantika is an acute and compassionate portrait of displacement and reinvention, and it sings."
—Michael Frank, author of One Hundred Saturdays: Stella Levi and the Search for a Lost World
“Intimately imagined, lyrically written and rich with historical detail, Kantika weaves forced displacement, wild reinvention and triumphant healing into a big, border-crossing family saga. Marvelous!”
—Gish Jen, author of Thank You, Mr. Nixon
"Kantika is a beautiful, moving and splendidly entertaining evocation of a lost world. Elizabeth Graver looks back at family history with a novelist's eye and a poet's empathy."
—John Banville, author of Ancient Light
“This utterly captivating novel illuminates how one family's history is history. Astonishing work, reminiscent, to my mind, of the best of the great Italian writer Elsa Morante."
—Peter Orner, author of Maggie Brown & Others
“From the first page, I was swept up and carried along on the migrations of an unforgettable family. Kantika is a gripping and gorgeously-told story of 20th-century Sephardic exile and reinvention and the longing for homes, both old and new.”
—Tova Mirvis, author of The Book of Separation
“In gorgeous detail, this epic family story restores a lost time and place. Kantika is both an immigrant tale and a hero’s journey as Graver’s extraordinary characters—first among them the indomitable Rebecca—travel between worlds and find ways to refashion their lives.”
—Allegra Goodman, author of Sam

Kantika is out in Turkish!

June 8, 2026

I’m delighted to be able to share that Kantika has come out in Turkish from Everest Yayinileri, meticulously translated by Seda Çıngay Mellor. I had

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