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SouthCoastToday.com, MA
Sept 1 2012
BookLovers: Bohjalian plumbs Armenian heritage for gripping novel
By Lauren Daley
BookLovers
Chances are you know about the Holocaust during World War II. But
chances are you don't know much at all about the Armenian Genocide
during World War I.
I sure didn't.
That's one reason I found "The Sandcastle Girls," by New York Times
bestselling novelist Chris Bohjalian, absolutely fascinating:
Syria, 1915. World War I is raging across Europe, and
Elizabeth Endicott, a wealthy young woman from Boston, has arrived in
Aleppo with a fresh diploma from Mount Holyoke College, a crash course
in nursing, and only the most basic grasp of the Armenian language.
When she volunteers to
deliver food and medical aid to refugees of the Armenian gen-ocide,
Elizabeth becomes friendly with Armen, a young Armenian engineer who
has already lost his wife and infant daughter. When Armen leaves to
join the British Army in Egypt, he writes Elizabeth letters, and comes
to realize that he has fallen in love with the young American.
Flash forward to 2012:
Laura, a novel-ist in New York, has never given her Armenian
heritage much thought. But when an old friend calls, claiming to have
seen a newspaper photo of Laura's grandmother promoting an exhibit at
a Boston museum, Laura embarks on a journey back through her family's
history that reveals love, loss - and a wrenching secret that has been
buried for generations.
Bohjalian, of Vermont, is, like his character Laura, a novelist of
Armenian descent. He has published 15 books, many of them bestsellers,
including "Midwives," "The Double Bind," and "Skeletons at the Feast."
I caught up with him recently.
Lauren: How'd you get the idea for "The Sandcastle Girls"?
Chris: I had been contemplating a novel about the Genocide for most of
my adult life. I actually tried to write one in the early 1990s,
between "Water Witches" and "Midwives." But it was a train wreck of a
book. I'm not kidding. It was unbelievably amateurish.
In 2009, my Armenian father grew ill. He lived in South Florida and I
live in Vermont. When I would visit him, we would pore over old family
photos together and I pressed him for details about his parents - who
were survivors from western Turkey. I also asked him for stories from
his childhood; after all, he was the son of immigrants who spoke a
language that can only be called exotic in Westchester County in the
1930s.
Finally, a good friend of mine, Khatchig Mouradian, who is a
journalist and Genocide scholar, urged me to try once again to write a
novel about what is, clearly, the most important part of my family's
history. So I did try again. And this time, the story came together.
Lauren: You've said Laura is a fictional version of yourself.
Chris: Yes, she's an Armenian-American novelist at mid-life who, at
the start of the novel, is woefully unfamiliar with her Armenian
ancestry. Likewise, her childhood was my childhood. Her grandparents'
house was my grandparents' house. And, yes, I was that fat little boy
in red velvet knickers singing Herman's Hermits with a bad British
accent at the start of the novel. I sure loved my Armenian
grandparents - and I know they sure loved me.
Lauren: Have you gone searching for your roots and family tree like Laura?
Chris: I have not gone searching. My grandparents took much of their
stories to their graves. But since the novel was published, I've heard
from dozens of people around the world who think we might be related.
Lauren: Did you travel to Syria or Armenia?
Chris: I went to Lebanon and Armenia. The Syrian civil war precluded
me from traveling there. I was deeply moved in both countries -
particularly in Anjar, Lebanon, where the survivors of Musa Dagh were
resettled. And although I do not speak Armenian, never have I felt
less like a stranger in a strange land than when I was in Yerevan. I
absolutely loved Armenia.
Lauren: You're a New York native, but you say you "found your voice"
in Vermont. What do you mean?
Chris: Well, I got a moral compass for starters. Living in a town of
less than a thousand people will do that. And I found stories that
interested me and weren't being told - tales of people at the social
margins pressing against the mainstream: Dowsers. Midwives.
Homeopaths. The Transgendered.
Lauren: What do you want readers to take away from this book?
Chris: I know in my heart that this is the most important book I'll
ever write. I hope readers come away from it moved; I hope they will
miss the characters and savor every moment of Armen and Elizabeth's
love story; and I hope they will come away with a knowledge of the
Armenian Genocide - what my narrator calls "the Slaughter You Know
Next to Nothing About."
Lauren Daley wants to learn more about her family tree, too. Contact
her at [email protected].
http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120901/ENTERTAIN/209010309
Sept 1 2012
BookLovers: Bohjalian plumbs Armenian heritage for gripping novel
By Lauren Daley
BookLovers
Chances are you know about the Holocaust during World War II. But
chances are you don't know much at all about the Armenian Genocide
during World War I.
I sure didn't.
That's one reason I found "The Sandcastle Girls," by New York Times
bestselling novelist Chris Bohjalian, absolutely fascinating:
Syria, 1915. World War I is raging across Europe, and
Elizabeth Endicott, a wealthy young woman from Boston, has arrived in
Aleppo with a fresh diploma from Mount Holyoke College, a crash course
in nursing, and only the most basic grasp of the Armenian language.
When she volunteers to
deliver food and medical aid to refugees of the Armenian gen-ocide,
Elizabeth becomes friendly with Armen, a young Armenian engineer who
has already lost his wife and infant daughter. When Armen leaves to
join the British Army in Egypt, he writes Elizabeth letters, and comes
to realize that he has fallen in love with the young American.
Flash forward to 2012:
Laura, a novel-ist in New York, has never given her Armenian
heritage much thought. But when an old friend calls, claiming to have
seen a newspaper photo of Laura's grandmother promoting an exhibit at
a Boston museum, Laura embarks on a journey back through her family's
history that reveals love, loss - and a wrenching secret that has been
buried for generations.
Bohjalian, of Vermont, is, like his character Laura, a novelist of
Armenian descent. He has published 15 books, many of them bestsellers,
including "Midwives," "The Double Bind," and "Skeletons at the Feast."
I caught up with him recently.
Lauren: How'd you get the idea for "The Sandcastle Girls"?
Chris: I had been contemplating a novel about the Genocide for most of
my adult life. I actually tried to write one in the early 1990s,
between "Water Witches" and "Midwives." But it was a train wreck of a
book. I'm not kidding. It was unbelievably amateurish.
In 2009, my Armenian father grew ill. He lived in South Florida and I
live in Vermont. When I would visit him, we would pore over old family
photos together and I pressed him for details about his parents - who
were survivors from western Turkey. I also asked him for stories from
his childhood; after all, he was the son of immigrants who spoke a
language that can only be called exotic in Westchester County in the
1930s.
Finally, a good friend of mine, Khatchig Mouradian, who is a
journalist and Genocide scholar, urged me to try once again to write a
novel about what is, clearly, the most important part of my family's
history. So I did try again. And this time, the story came together.
Lauren: You've said Laura is a fictional version of yourself.
Chris: Yes, she's an Armenian-American novelist at mid-life who, at
the start of the novel, is woefully unfamiliar with her Armenian
ancestry. Likewise, her childhood was my childhood. Her grandparents'
house was my grandparents' house. And, yes, I was that fat little boy
in red velvet knickers singing Herman's Hermits with a bad British
accent at the start of the novel. I sure loved my Armenian
grandparents - and I know they sure loved me.
Lauren: Have you gone searching for your roots and family tree like Laura?
Chris: I have not gone searching. My grandparents took much of their
stories to their graves. But since the novel was published, I've heard
from dozens of people around the world who think we might be related.
Lauren: Did you travel to Syria or Armenia?
Chris: I went to Lebanon and Armenia. The Syrian civil war precluded
me from traveling there. I was deeply moved in both countries -
particularly in Anjar, Lebanon, where the survivors of Musa Dagh were
resettled. And although I do not speak Armenian, never have I felt
less like a stranger in a strange land than when I was in Yerevan. I
absolutely loved Armenia.
Lauren: You're a New York native, but you say you "found your voice"
in Vermont. What do you mean?
Chris: Well, I got a moral compass for starters. Living in a town of
less than a thousand people will do that. And I found stories that
interested me and weren't being told - tales of people at the social
margins pressing against the mainstream: Dowsers. Midwives.
Homeopaths. The Transgendered.
Lauren: What do you want readers to take away from this book?
Chris: I know in my heart that this is the most important book I'll
ever write. I hope readers come away from it moved; I hope they will
miss the characters and savor every moment of Armen and Elizabeth's
love story; and I hope they will come away with a knowledge of the
Armenian Genocide - what my narrator calls "the Slaughter You Know
Next to Nothing About."
Lauren Daley wants to learn more about her family tree, too. Contact
her at [email protected].
http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120901/ENTERTAIN/209010309