Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of antisemitism, child loss, infertility, xenophobia, wartime violence, genocide, and ableism.

“This, the beautiful time, the time of wingspans, leaps and open doors, of the heedless, headlong flow from here to there. This, the time before thought, the world arriving not as lists or harkening back or future tense, but as breath-filled music—kantar, sing.”

The novel’s opening sentences establish the importance of song, which gives the novel its title, demonstrates the central character’s creativity, and acts as a motif depicting the theme of Cultural Preservation Amidst Change. The songs of Rebecca’s childhood and memories of this “beautiful time” stay with her as she moves from country to country and sustain her amidst the challenges she faces later in life. Elizabeth Graver uses lush descriptions and flowing sentence structure to capture the joy and expansive freedoms of Rebecca’s privileged childhood.

“Is this when Rebecca feels her first flicker of unease, standing snug between her mother and little brother, Isidoro, an adult’s hand resting heavy on her hair? Is this when the skin of her eyelids first registers the possibility of sudden loss—how, for the people below, a house is a matchbox, its residents slender, red-tipped matches; strike them and they flare?”

The young Rebecca’s reaction to the fires that destroy homes in an impoverished neighborhood draws a distinction between the Cohens’ wealth and privilege and the situation of other Jewish families in Constantinople. The protagonist’s “flicker of unease” foreshadows the loss of the family’s high socioeconomic status and the vulnerability that Rebecca faces most of her life as a result. Like the people whose houses burn, Rebecca will be displaced by a “sudden loss” that impacts the meaning of home to her.

“The two girls look alike, both dark-haired and petite. Strangers sometimes mistake them for twins, though Rebecca’s eyes are lighter, and they tote around twin dolls, birthday gifts from Rebecca’s father.”

Rebbeca and Lika are as close in their friendship as they are in their appearances. However, despite the similarities that cause people to “mistake them for twins,” the girls come from starkly different socioeconomic backgrounds, which becomes apparent when World War I sets them on different paths.