Awesome Sunday

The Hamazkayin Armenian Educational and Cultural Society hosted a wonderful event in honour of my novel, Nobody’s Child, on Sunday.

This event was unlike any I have ever been to. For much of the proceedings, I sat in the audience and listened. The master of ceremonies talked about my novel and my background and the fact that I’m not Armenian. Then he introduced a group of elementary students who had volunteered to be readers. Then he introduced Professor Lorne Shirinian, who is a writer, Armenian historian, and son of a Georgetown Boy.

Lorne got up and did a “review” of Nobody’s Child. I don’t mean the sort of review that you read in the paper. It was more like a detailed dissection of the novel. When he reached certain points, he would ask one of the students to get up and read a selection from my novel that illustrated his point.

It was a moving experience for me to sit in the audience and to listen to this. It was obvious that Lorne admires Nobody’s Child and his perceptive interpetation was interesting for me to listen to. The students’ readings were moving too. It was all the more moving because Lorne and the students had all lost family in the real life Armenian Genocide.

As I listened, I found myself close to tears. The characters in Nobody’s Child have been in my heart and mind for nearly 20 years now. They are real people to me. The selections chosen were the most heart-rending ones: those most difficult to write.

Then it was my turn to speak. I simply said a few thanks and then suggested people ask questions. The common theme of all the questions was, “What made you write about the Armenian Genocide when you’re not Armenian?” and “These characters, the setting, the geography is so accurate. How did you manage that?” Others wanted to know why I wouldn’t have written about a tragedy that was more accessible, like the Holocaust.

I explanined that this story made me write it. I did not go out in search of it. When I first interviewed Carl Georgian for a magazine profile way back in the late 1980s, I had never heard of the Armenian Genocide and didn’t know about the Georgetown Boys. What he told me of his father’s experiences chilled me to the bone. I couldn’t sleep at night because so many questions were swirling around my brain. That one interview started me on a ten year quest for information and answers. And it resulted in many books. In addition to Nobody’s Child, there is The Hunger, published in 1999 that also touches on the Armenian Genocide. And in June, Aram’s Choice will be published, and next year, Call Me Aram. And I am currently writing Daughter of War, the sequel to Nobody’s Child.

I hope that by illuminating the lives of these characters, I can put these ghosts to rest. What we forget, we are bound to repeat.

The reason I write about this and not a genocide that is more “accessible” is because the Armenian Genocide was the first genocide of the 20th century. It was shoved under the carpet and forgotten. Perhaps if that hadn’t been done, other 20th century genocides would have been prevented by public uproar.

Author: Marsha

I write historical fiction, mostly from the perspective of young people who are thrust in the midst of war. View all posts by Marsha