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Austin American-Statesman
July 28 2012
Kirkus Reviews: 'The Sandcastle Girls' by Chris Bohjalian; 'Final
Victory' by Stanley Weintraub
The Sandcastle Girls
Chris Bohjalian
Doubleday, $25.95
Laura, the narrator of Chris Bohjalian's latest, is doing genealogical
research, attempting to learn more about a fact that has always
intrigued her: Her Boston Brahmin grandmother, Elizabeth, and her
grandfather, Armen, were brought together by the Armenian genocide.
Flash back to 1915. Grandmother Elizabeth has journeyed to the Syrian
city of Aleppo, on a mission sponsored by an American relief group.
The Turks are using Aleppo as a depot for the straggling remnants of
thousands of Armenian women, who have been force-marched through the
desert after their men were slaughtered. Elizabeth finds the women
huddled in a public square, awaiting transports to a desert
"relocation camp" where, in reality, their final extermination will
take place.
Elizabeth takes in two of these refugees. By chance, Elizabeth also
encounters Armen, an Armenian engineer who has come to Aleppo to
search for his wife, Karine.
Despairing of Karine's survival - and falling in love with Elizabeth -
Armen joins the British Army to fight the Turks. Among archival photos
viewed by Laura decades later is one of Karine, who did reach the
square mere days after Armen left Aleppo. How narrowly did Karine miss
reuniting with Armen, Laura wonders, acknowledging that, but for
tragic vagaries of fate, the family that produced her might never have
come to be.
"The Sandcastle Girls" is a gruesome, unforgettable exposition of the
Armenian genocide and its consequences.
Bohjalian will speak and sign copies of new his new book at 7 p.m.
Tuesday at BookPeople, 603 N. Lamar Blvd.
http://www.statesman.com/opinion/insight/kirkus-reviews-the-sandcastle-girls-by-chris-bohjalian-2424022.html
July 28 2012
Kirkus Reviews: 'The Sandcastle Girls' by Chris Bohjalian; 'Final
Victory' by Stanley Weintraub
The Sandcastle Girls
Chris Bohjalian
Doubleday, $25.95
Laura, the narrator of Chris Bohjalian's latest, is doing genealogical
research, attempting to learn more about a fact that has always
intrigued her: Her Boston Brahmin grandmother, Elizabeth, and her
grandfather, Armen, were brought together by the Armenian genocide.
Flash back to 1915. Grandmother Elizabeth has journeyed to the Syrian
city of Aleppo, on a mission sponsored by an American relief group.
The Turks are using Aleppo as a depot for the straggling remnants of
thousands of Armenian women, who have been force-marched through the
desert after their men were slaughtered. Elizabeth finds the women
huddled in a public square, awaiting transports to a desert
"relocation camp" where, in reality, their final extermination will
take place.
Elizabeth takes in two of these refugees. By chance, Elizabeth also
encounters Armen, an Armenian engineer who has come to Aleppo to
search for his wife, Karine.
Despairing of Karine's survival - and falling in love with Elizabeth -
Armen joins the British Army to fight the Turks. Among archival photos
viewed by Laura decades later is one of Karine, who did reach the
square mere days after Armen left Aleppo. How narrowly did Karine miss
reuniting with Armen, Laura wonders, acknowledging that, but for
tragic vagaries of fate, the family that produced her might never have
come to be.
"The Sandcastle Girls" is a gruesome, unforgettable exposition of the
Armenian genocide and its consequences.
Bohjalian will speak and sign copies of new his new book at 7 p.m.
Tuesday at BookPeople, 603 N. Lamar Blvd.
http://www.statesman.com/opinion/insight/kirkus-reviews-the-sandcastle-girls-by-chris-bohjalian-2424022.html