Family Papers

A Sephardic Journey Through the Twentieth Century

Nonfiction, Religion & Spirituality, Judaism, History, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Cultural Studies, Emigration & Immigration, Biography & Memoir
Cover of the book Family Papers by Sarah Abrevaya Stein, Farrar, Straus and Giroux
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Sarah Abrevaya Stein ISBN: 9780374716158
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Publication: November 19, 2019
Imprint: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Language: English
Author: Sarah Abrevaya Stein
ISBN: 9780374716158
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication: November 19, 2019
Imprint: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Language: English

An award-winning historian shares the true story of a frayed and diasporic Sephardic Jewish family preserved in thousands of letters

For centuries, the bustling port city of Salonica was home to the sprawling Levy family. As leading publishers and editors, they helped chronicle modernity as it was experienced by Sephardic Jews across the Ottoman Empire. The wars of the twentieth century, however, redrew the borders around them, in the process transforming the Levys from Ottomans to Greeks. Family members soon moved across boundaries and hemispheres, stretching the familial diaspora from Greece to Western Europe, Israel, Brazil, and India. In time, the Holocaust nearly eviscerated the clan, eradicating whole branches of the family tree.

In Family Papers, the prizewinning Sephardic historian Sarah Abrevaya Stein uses the family’s correspondence to tell the story of their journey across the arc of a century and the breadth of the globe. They wrote to share grief and to reveal secrets, to propose marriage and to plan for divorce, to maintain connection. They wrote because they were family. And years after they frayed, Stein discovers, what remains solid is the fragile tissue that once held them together: neither blood nor belief, but papers.

With meticulous research and care, Stein uses the Levys' letters to tell not only their history, but the history of Sephardic Jews in the twentieth century.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

An award-winning historian shares the true story of a frayed and diasporic Sephardic Jewish family preserved in thousands of letters

For centuries, the bustling port city of Salonica was home to the sprawling Levy family. As leading publishers and editors, they helped chronicle modernity as it was experienced by Sephardic Jews across the Ottoman Empire. The wars of the twentieth century, however, redrew the borders around them, in the process transforming the Levys from Ottomans to Greeks. Family members soon moved across boundaries and hemispheres, stretching the familial diaspora from Greece to Western Europe, Israel, Brazil, and India. In time, the Holocaust nearly eviscerated the clan, eradicating whole branches of the family tree.

In Family Papers, the prizewinning Sephardic historian Sarah Abrevaya Stein uses the family’s correspondence to tell the story of their journey across the arc of a century and the breadth of the globe. They wrote to share grief and to reveal secrets, to propose marriage and to plan for divorce, to maintain connection. They wrote because they were family. And years after they frayed, Stein discovers, what remains solid is the fragile tissue that once held them together: neither blood nor belief, but papers.

With meticulous research and care, Stein uses the Levys' letters to tell not only their history, but the history of Sephardic Jews in the twentieth century.

More books from Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Cover of the book That Used to Be Us by Sarah Abrevaya Stein
Cover of the book A World of Trouble by Sarah Abrevaya Stein
Cover of the book Fin & Lady by Sarah Abrevaya Stein
Cover of the book Chasing Hubble's Shadows by Sarah Abrevaya Stein
Cover of the book Homage to Mistress Bradstreet by Sarah Abrevaya Stein
Cover of the book Adrenaline Crush by Sarah Abrevaya Stein
Cover of the book In Suspect Terrain by Sarah Abrevaya Stein
Cover of the book The Death of Cancer by Sarah Abrevaya Stein
Cover of the book More Stories from My Father's Court by Sarah Abrevaya Stein
Cover of the book Will & I by Sarah Abrevaya Stein
Cover of the book Skippy Dies by Sarah Abrevaya Stein
Cover of the book William Clark and the Shaping of the West by Sarah Abrevaya Stein
Cover of the book Vindication by Sarah Abrevaya Stein
Cover of the book Bad Science by Sarah Abrevaya Stein
Cover of the book Alpha Dogs by Sarah Abrevaya Stein
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy