Winner of the Prize São Paulo of Literature 2008 for the best debut novel
Finalist of the Jabuti Prize 2008

In The Key of Smyrna, the author builds a novel with several voices, by creating a mix of stories that end up in a single account, sometimes strong and heartbreaking, sometimes tender, with a very lively, austere and delicate style.

Granddaughter of Turkish Jewish and daughter of exiles from Brazilian dictatorship in Portugal, the narrator receives from her grandfather the key that will open the door of her home in Smyrna, where his grandfather had lived in Turkey. This search for her family’s roots is what determines the beginning of a trip about the quest for her identity. With multiple cultural references, The Key of Smyrna reveals both the richest and the most difficult aspects of the cultural legacy in a family that has known the different faces of the exile. 

This novel « establishes Salem Levy as one of the main Brazilian writers of the 21st century » - Renato Pompeu for Diário do Comércio, São Paulo

« A novel praised by the Portuguese critics as one of the renovating texts of the Brazilian literature» - Antonio Gonçales Filho for A Gazeta, São Paulo

Published by Cotovia (Portugal), 2007, 206 pages.