Today we are very excited to share an interview with Author Ruth Behar (Across So Many Seas)!
Meet the Author: Ruth Behar
Author Bio: Ruth Behar (ruthbehar.com), the Pura Belpré Award-winning author of Lucky Broken Girl and Letters from Cuba, was born in Havana, Cuba, grew up in New York, and has also lived in Spain and Mexico. Her work also includes poetry, memoir, and the acclaimed travel books An Island Called Home and Traveling Heavy. She was the first Latina to win a MacArthur “Genius” Grant, and other honors include a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship and being named a “Great Immigrant” by the Carnegie Corporation. An anthropology professor at the University of Michigan, she lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
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About the Book: Across So Many Seas
“As lyrical as it is epic, Across So Many Seas reminds us that while the past may be another country, it’s also a living, breathing song of sadness and joy that helps define who we are.” –Alan Gratz, New York Times bestselling author of Refugee
Spanning over 500 years, Pura Belpré Award winner Ruth Behar’s epic novel tells the stories of four girls from different generations of a Jewish family, many of them forced to leave their country and start a new life.
In 1492, during the Spanish Inquisition, Benvenida and her family are banished from Spain for being Jewish, and must flee the country or be killed. They journey by foot and by sea, eventually settling in Istanbul.
Over four centuries later, in 1923, shortly after the Turkish war of independence, Reina’s father disowns her for a small act of disobedience. He ships her away to live with an aunt in Cuba, to be wed in an arranged marriage when she turns fifteen.
In 1961, Reina’s daughter, Alegra, is proud to be a brigadista, teaching literacy in the countryside for Fidel Castro. But soon Castro’s crackdowns force her to flee to Miami all alone, leaving her parents behind.
Finally, in 2003, Alegra’s daughter, Paloma, is fascinated by all the journeys that had to happen before she could be born. A keeper of memories, she’s thrilled by the opportunity to learn more about her heritage on a family trip to Spain, where she makes a momentous discovery.
Though many years and many seas separate these girls, they are united by a love of music and poetry, a desire to belong and to matter, a passion for learning, and their longing for a home where all are welcome. And each is lucky to stand on the shoulders of their courageous ancestors.
~Author Chat~
YABC: What gave you the inspiration to write this book?
I love historical fiction and was inspired to write Across So Many Seas because I wanted to imagine a moment in the distant past I’d read about, but where I didn’t see young people represented. That moment was 1492, which we associate with Columbus sailing to the New World, but was also the year when the Jewish people of Spain were expelled by the Spanish kings. I asked myself what it would have been like to be a twelve-year-old girl in 1492, leaving a beloved home in Spain after the expulsion. And so, the character of Benvenida was born. She was a girl who learned to read and write thanks to having a mother who came from a family of printers. Afterwards, I began thinking about the impact this history still has for later generations living in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. And so another twelve-year-old character, Reina, came to mind, inspired by my paternal grandmother, who was sent from Turkey to Cuba, all alone, in 1923, bringing with her an oud to play old Spanish songs. I imagined Reina would be melancholy, but she’d have a daughter named Alegra who was cheerful. We also meet Alegra at the age of twelve, and it’s 1961 and she joins the literacy campaign of the Cuban revolution because she values reading and writing, but things unravel and she must leave the island that has been her beloved home. Last, we meet Paloma, the daughter of Alegra, who lives in Miami in 2003. Also twelve, she has a long inheritance of stories and songs to carry forward, and make meaning of it all. On a family trip to Spain, she brings all the generations together. These four girls lived inside me and I didn’t know it until I wrote the book.
YABC: How do you know when a book is finished?
I often struggle to end my books. I keep writing beyond the ending, wanting the story to go on. Eventually I realize that the story has to end earlier. While there has to be a sense of closure, a sense that the journey of the book is over, you must also leave space for readers to imagine in their own hearts and minds what will become of the characters and their lives. I know a book is finished when the last line tugs at my heart. That’s the moment I take a deep breath and say to myself, “It’s done.”
YABC: What research did you do to write this book?
I did different kinds of research to write this book. I did historical research, reading about the four historical periods I wrote about – medieval Spain, modern Turkey, revolutionary Cuba, and contemporary Miami. I’ve spent time in all the places I wrote about. I’ve lived in Spain and have visited Toledo and its Sephardic Museum many times. I visited Turkey once and was able to step inside the house where my grandmother, my Abuela, lived in the town of Silivri. I’ve gone back many times to Cuba and have researched the Jewish presence there. And I have spent lots of time in Miami over the years, getting to know the Cuban immigrant community there. For me, being in places is very important. That comes from my background as a cultural anthropologist, but also from having been an immigrant child. From early childhood, I experienced displacement and the need to create memories of places so that we don’t lose them, so we hold on to them in our imagination. I travel to the lost places of my history seeking the memories which become the foundation for my storytelling.
YABC: When did you know you wanted to be a writer?
When I was eleven, I started keeping a diary. It was a small red notebook with a lock and key. I wrote poems, I wrote notes about the books I read, jotting down quotes of passages I liked, and I wrote about my feelings. I read a lot. I loved fiction and poetry and playwriting, though I didn’t understand everything I read. I knew I wanted to be a writer one day. I wasn’t sure how I’d achieve that goal, but I never let go of that dream.
YABC: How do you keep your ‘voice’ true to the age category you are writing within?
When I’m writing middle-grade novels, I try to imagine how I felt and saw the world when I was between ten and twelve years old. It was a time of so much learning and discovery for me, a mix of joy and sadness. Somehow that voice has stayed with me. It’s a voice filled with curiosity, knowledge, and a last touch of innocence.
YABC: What is your favorite writing space?
I like writing at my messy desk at home in Ann Arbor, Michigan, overlooking a tree outside my window that is always there but always changing depending on the seasons. Staring out at that tree, I put words down on the page. Time seems to stand still and I forget about everything but the story I’m trying to tell.
YABC: What hobbies do you enjoy?
I enjoying dancing salsa, bachata, and the cha-cha. I also enjoying taking walks, especially on the beach at the end of the day.
YABC: What other age group would you consider writing for?
I’ve written picture books and middle grade novels and I’ve written nonfiction books and poetry for adults. The age group I haven’t written for yet is young adult. I daydream of writing for that age group. I think I’d write a story about first love but conflicted with class differences.
YABC: What’s up next for you?
I’ve started to write a verse novel. I’ve been an admirer of the genre for a long time and I thought I’d give it a try. I can’t say more because the writing is in the early stages, and if I talk too much about it, the story will lose its magic.
Title: ACROSS SO MANY SEAS
Author: Ruth Behar
Release Date: February 6, 2024
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books
ISBN-10: 0593323408
ISBN-13: 9780593323403
Genre: Middle Grade Historical Fiction
Age Range: 10 and up
*Giveaway Details*
Three (3) winners will receive a hardcover copy of Across So Many Seas (Ruth Behar) ~ US Only!
*Click the Rafflecopter link below to enter the giveaway!*
Looks like a great read!
It seems like a beautiful story!
Sounds great for historical fiction fans!
I need to share this with my daughter.
This is such a pretty cover and sounds like such a great, unique story!
I love this cover and think this is an important book to read.
Sounds interesting!