Elizabeth Graver’s fifth novel, Kantika (“song”in Ladino), was inspired by her grandmother, Rebecca née Cohen Baruch Levy, who was born into a Sephardic Jewish family in Istanbul and whose tumultuous and shape-shifting life journey took her to Spain, Cuba and finally New York.  Kantika will be published in April 2023 by Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt. Elizabeth’s 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, The Pushcart Prize Anthology, and Best American Essays. She lives outside of Boston and teaches at Boston College

Photo credit : Adrianne Mathiowetz