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Book: Skylark Farm

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  • Book: Skylark Farm

    SKYLARK FARM

    Kirkus Reviews
    November 1, 2006

    One family's heartbreaking experience during the 1915 Armenian
    genocide.

    In a small Anatolian hill town, Turks and Armenians live together
    in relative harmony for generations. But when, in 1915, the Ottoman
    Empire allies itself with Germany in the brewing world war, Turkish
    citizens are forced to take sides. Sempad Arslanian, however, remains
    oblivious to political change.

    Head of his large, wealthy clan and benefactor to his neighbors --
    Turk, Greek and Armenian alike -- he spends the Spring of 1915
    joyfully preparing for a reunion with his brother Yerwant, who,
    at 13, left Skylark Farm, the family's country estate, to study in
    Italy. Preparations by both brothers rival ceremonial planning for
    royal visits: Sempad orders stained glass windows from England and
    levels a pasture for a tennis court; Yerwant outfits a red Isotta
    Fraschini for his road trip south, his monogram in silver on the
    doors, and stocks it with a great number of small gold and silver
    gifts to give away on his arrival. On May 24, days before Yerwant is
    to leave, Italy closes its borders and joins the War. And in Sempad's
    village, as throughout the Empire, all Armenian heads of household
    are arrested. Sempad flees from his house in town to Skylark Farm.

    What happens there -- later that night the freshly dug tennis court is
    used as a mass grave for all the Arslanian men -- is only the first
    of countless horrors the Arslanian women (and one boy disguised as
    a girl) endure on their forced death-march across the Syrian desert,
    where they are raided periodically by the Kurds, raped by their Young
    Turk "guides" and starved. The story of survival that follows is the
    unexpected solace of this fearless tale.

    An Armenian Schindler's List.

    Publication Date: 1/24/2007 0:00:00 Publisher: Knopf Stage: Adult Star:
    1 ISBN: 1-4000-4435-9 Price: $23.95 Author: Arslan, Antonia

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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