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Novelist Elizabeth Graver will discuss her novel Kantika ("song" in Ladino), a multi-generational saga inspired by her grandmother Rebecca, who was born into a Sephardic Jewish family from Istanbul in the early 20th century and whose kaleidoscopic journey took her to Barcelona, Havana, and New York. Kantika explores themes of displacement, endurance, disability and language crossings, as well as the rich, vanishing culture of Sephardic Jews.

Elizabeth Graver's fifth novel, Kantika, was awarded the Edward Lewis Wallant Award, the Julia Ward Howe Award, the Massachusetts Book Award for Fiction, and a National Jewish Book Award. It was named a Best Historical Fiction Book of 2023 and Notable Book  of the Year by The New York Times, and a Best Book of the Year by NPR, Lilith and Libby, and translated into German and Turkish. Her fourth novel, The End of the Point, was long-listed for the 2013 National Book Award in Fiction. Her other novels are Awake, The Honey Thief, and Unravelling. Her story collection, Have You Seen Me?, won the 1991 Drue Heinz Literature Prize. Her work has been anthologized in Best American Short Stories, Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards, and Best American Essays. She currently teaches at Boston College.