Interview with author Leigh Bardugo on "The Familiar" - Ladino Day 2024

Jewish Questions: Anti-Semitism

Bestselling fantasy author Leigh Bardugo discusses her new novel, “The Familiar,” with University of Washington faculty member Canan Bolel. In the novel, Bardugo follows the struggles of a “converso” heroine — from a family forced to convert to Christianity and keep its Jewish heritage secret in 16th-century Spain — who draws magic from her family’s secret language, Ladino, and the refranes (sayings) that preserve Sephardic Jewish wit and wisdom across time. In the conversation, Bardguo will discuss what drew her to this story and setting, how she wove Ladino into her narrative, the family history that inspired her, and the collaboration with Bolel that led to the selection of refranes included in the book.