Author: Chris Bohjalian
Pages (File size): 304 (2430 KB)
Published: 2012
Challenges: E-Book, Historical Fiction
Genre: Fiction, Historical Fiction
Edition: E-Book
Source: Library
Description: This spellbinding tale travels between Aleppo, Syria, in 1915 and Bronxville, New York, in 2012—a sweeping historical love story steeped in the author’s Armenian heritage, making it his most personal novel to date.
When Elizabeth Endicott arrives in Syria, she has a diploma from Mount Holyoke College, a crash course in nursing, and only the most basic grasp of the Armenian language. The First World War is spreading across Europe, and she has volunteered on behalf of the Boston-based Friends of Armenia to deliver food and medical aid to refugees of the Armenian genocide. There, Elizabeth becomes friendly with Armen, a young Armenian engineer who has already lost his wife and infant daughter. When Armen leaves Aleppo to join the British Army in Egypt, he begins to write Elizabeth letters, and comes to realize that he has fallen in love with the wealthy, young American woman who is so different from the wife he lost.Flash forward to the present, where we meet Laura Petrosian, a novelist living in suburban New York. Although her grandparents’ ornate Pelham home was affectionately nicknamed the “Ottoman Annex,” Laura has never really 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. (via Goodreads)
Thoughts: I have attempted to read a couple other books by this particular author and for some reason this was my first. I think I had great expectations of this book and for most of the book I was confused with the way that the author formatted the story. It wasn't that I didn't enjoy the book, I did, I just felt that the author putting both view points in the same chapter did make it confusing for me as a reader and would have liked if he had done every other chapter so that I could have realized what the storyline was and what was going on.
Overall, I enjoyed the story itself, but just felt that it could been formatted a little differently.
Bottom Line: I would probably recommend this book to fans of Chris Bohjalian and those that enjoy reading historical fiction set in the 20th century.
Rating: 3.75/5
Pages for 2013: 9372
No comments:
Post a Comment