Maurice Caraco (1900-1975) was born in Istanbul to a Jewish family in Galata, but being his parents’ tenth child he was quickly given to a nurse in Hasköy, an area inhabited by poor Jews. As a result of his love of French language and culture, Caraco later spent most of his life as a writer and poet in Paris, and he also lived for several years in Israel. La famille Calderon, based on his personal childhood memories, was Caraco’s first book. Emphasizing family history, Caraco chronicles life in the Jewish communities in Istanbul of the early twentieth century through the eyes of a child. With its generous descriptions of all small and great aspects of daily life, from family intrigues and excursions to the Princes Islands to the specialities of Ottoman cuisine, and with dialogues which are given an extra stroke of authenticity through the occasional expression in Ladino, Turkish and Hebrew, this book is one of a kind. It is written in French.

• PREFACE (page 9)