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A Novel About A Massacre

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  • A Novel About A Massacre

    A NOVEL ABOUT A MASSACRE

    Daily American Online
    http://articles.dailyamerican.com/2012-07-17/opinion/32718436_1_armenian-genocide-nick-massacre
    July 18 2012

    "The Sandcastle Girls" by Chris Bohjalian, Doubleday, 320 pages, $25.

    "How do a million and a half people die with nobody knowing? You kill
    them in the middle of nowhere."

    This is a story of a massacre that you probably know nothing about;
    the Armenian genocide during the First World War.

    In 1915, Elizabeth Endicott, 21, takes a crash course in nursing. The
    young woman from Boston has learned a little Armenian. She accompanies
    her father to Aleppo, Syria, as volunteers with the Friends of Armenia
    to deliver food and medical aid to refugees. She becomes friends with
    Armen, an Armenian engineer, whose wife and baby died.

    Fast-forward to the present. Laura Petrosian lives in New York. She
    is a freshman in college. She is in a museum one day and sees a
    photograph. She recognizes her grandmother, Elizabeth. Elizabeth and
    Armen are no longer living.

    This is a remarkable book, rich in historical detail. Yes, the scenes
    of the refuges suffering and dying can be brutal, but there are times
    we needed to be reminded that terrible things happen. The story of
    Elizabeth and Armen is touching and then you find out that one of
    them kept a big secret from the other.

    Chris Bohjalian is the author of 15 books. He said readers asked him
    for years to write about his Armenian heritage.

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