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Kirkus Reviews (Print)
February 1, 2015, Sunday
AS THE POPPIES BLOOMED
FICTION; Historical
On the eve of war and destruction, an Armenian family tries to
maintain its traditional way of life in this historical novel.As this
luminous, doom-tinged tale begins, it's 1913 in eastern Turkey, and in
the little Armenian village of Salor, the headman's teenage daughter
Anno is hiding in an abandoned well, not only to escape from war or
soldiers, but to evade prying eyes on this busy day when her sister is
getting married and to steal a moment with Daron, the young man she
loves. Their Romeo-and-Juliet story occupies much of the novel. Anno's
father objects to the marriage; he wrongly believes that Daron's
father has been sexually immoral.
As this knot gets unraveled, the villagers go about their daily,
age-old agrarian routines. And some men quietly make dangerous trips
to gather arms and ammo, especially after 1915, when the Ottoman
government begins rounding up and murdering Armenian intellectuals and
political leaders. Armenians remember the massacres of 1894 and wish
to be prepared this time. "But," as one fedayee, or freedom fighter,
observes, "how will a tiny band of men such as ourselves, with nothing
but the guns we can smuggle, protect our people from the whole of the
Turkish army?" They can't, and this knowledge hangs over the reader
like the clouds veiling Salor's nearby Mount Maratuk. In her debut
novel, Boyadjian vividly conjures the specific sensory details of the
Armenians' lost world-food, drink, nature, daily tasks, and handmade
objects, such as a rug given for a wedding "with such a joyous blend
of deep reds, oranges, and yellows that everyone gasped." The story is
fiction but is based on memories from the author's four
grandparents-all survivors of the 1915 Armenian genocide. Their
survival adds a note of hope.Powerful and sensitive, this tragic novel
helps illuminate a historical episode still too little known or
acknowledged.
Publication Date: 2015-01-04
Publisher: Salor Press
Stage: Indie
ISBN: 978-0-9911241-0-7
Price: $15.95
Author: Boyadjian, Maral
February 1, 2015, Sunday
AS THE POPPIES BLOOMED
FICTION; Historical
On the eve of war and destruction, an Armenian family tries to
maintain its traditional way of life in this historical novel.As this
luminous, doom-tinged tale begins, it's 1913 in eastern Turkey, and in
the little Armenian village of Salor, the headman's teenage daughter
Anno is hiding in an abandoned well, not only to escape from war or
soldiers, but to evade prying eyes on this busy day when her sister is
getting married and to steal a moment with Daron, the young man she
loves. Their Romeo-and-Juliet story occupies much of the novel. Anno's
father objects to the marriage; he wrongly believes that Daron's
father has been sexually immoral.
As this knot gets unraveled, the villagers go about their daily,
age-old agrarian routines. And some men quietly make dangerous trips
to gather arms and ammo, especially after 1915, when the Ottoman
government begins rounding up and murdering Armenian intellectuals and
political leaders. Armenians remember the massacres of 1894 and wish
to be prepared this time. "But," as one fedayee, or freedom fighter,
observes, "how will a tiny band of men such as ourselves, with nothing
but the guns we can smuggle, protect our people from the whole of the
Turkish army?" They can't, and this knowledge hangs over the reader
like the clouds veiling Salor's nearby Mount Maratuk. In her debut
novel, Boyadjian vividly conjures the specific sensory details of the
Armenians' lost world-food, drink, nature, daily tasks, and handmade
objects, such as a rug given for a wedding "with such a joyous blend
of deep reds, oranges, and yellows that everyone gasped." The story is
fiction but is based on memories from the author's four
grandparents-all survivors of the 1915 Armenian genocide. Their
survival adds a note of hope.Powerful and sensitive, this tragic novel
helps illuminate a historical episode still too little known or
acknowledged.
Publication Date: 2015-01-04
Publisher: Salor Press
Stage: Indie
ISBN: 978-0-9911241-0-7
Price: $15.95
Author: Boyadjian, Maral