The Sandcastle Girls: A Novel

[MosJan]

http://www.chrisbohj...andcastle_girls

 

 

PRAISE

"Chris Bohjalian is at his very finest in this searing story of love and war. I was mesmerized from page one. Bravo!" -- Paula McLain, author of The Paris Wife

 

"In his latest novel, master storyteller Chris Bohjalian explores the ways in which our ancestral past informs our contemporary lives — in ways we understand and ways that remain mysteriously out of reach. The Sandcastle Girls is deft, layered, eye-opening, and riveting. I was deeply moved." —Wally Lamb, author of The Hour I First Believed

 

"Bohjalian powerfully narrates an intricately nuanced romance with a complicated historical event at the forefront. With the centennial of the Armenian genocide fast approaching, this is not to be missed. Simply astounding." -- Julie Kane, Library Journal (starred review)

 

"Bohjalian's powerful novel . . .depicts the Armenian genocide and one contemporary novelist's quest to uncover her heritage. . .His storytelling makes this a beautiful, frightening, and unforgettable read." -- Publishers' Weekly

 

"An unforgettable exposition of the still too-little-known facts of the Armenian genocide and its multigenerational consequences." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

 

"A powerful and moving story based on real events seldom discussed. It will leave you reeling." -- Elizabeth Dickie, Booklist

 

"The scope of The Sandcastle Girls is almost epic. . .While there are the rich personal stories that his readers connect to, what he has achieved is much larger. Bohjalian has written a compelling and powerful novel that will bring the history of the genocide to a wide audience. The Sandcastle Girls will remain ingrained in your consciousness." -- Wendy Plotkin, The Armenian Weekly

 

SYNOPSIS

Over the course of his career, New York Times bestselling novelist Chris Bohjalian has taken readers on a spectacular array of journeys. Midwives brought us to an isolated Vermont farmhouse on an icy winter's night and a homebirth gone tragically wrong. The Double Bind perfectly conjured the Roaring Twenties on Long Island – and a young social worker's descent into madness. And Skeletons at the Feast chronicled the last six months of World War Two in Poland and Germany with nail-biting authenticity. As The Washington Post Book World has written, Bohjalian writes "the sorts of books people stay awake all night to finish."

 

In his fifteenth book, The Sandcastle Girls, he brings us on a very different kind of journey. 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.

[Nané]

http://www.chrisbohj...andcastle_girls

 

 

 

This just went on my list of books to read. I am typically drawn to life-stories set during the horrid time period but this one sounds particularly interesting. Thanx for sharing Mos.