This book grabbed me from the start. I frequently forgot it was fiction, not a memoir! I love reading a great story and learning siomething at the same time.

Follow Elizabeth, a proper Bostonian who is nursing at Syria’s Aleppo Hospital, and Armen, an Armenian engineer who fights with the British army in the Dardenelles, through 1915. The horror of the deportation of women and children into the Syrian desert after the massacre of the older boys and men in Armenia is explicit.
Nevart, an adult woman, and the child, Hatoun, who have both somehow survived the desert, offer a clear picture of the “poor starving Armenians” my grandparents spoke of when encouraging me to clean my plate. You will learn a great deal about the “slaughter you know next to nothing about” through the eyes of those who survived it and in the context of an engrossing tale that covers death, sorrow, despair, cruelty, charity, kindness, hope and love with a dash of mystery.
The intertwining story of the Armenian family in 2010 Boston is peripheral, yet vital to the plot. Well written, with interesting and clearly drawn characters, this very believable story is true to history as well. Book groups will love Elizabeth, root for Nevart and Hatoun, despair with Armen and be surprised by the end.

Chris Bohjelian's best book yet gives insight into the Armenian genocide during the Ottoman Empire - superbly written

Great writing, great characters, and great history! Once again the reader is treated to engaging female characters--set against a piece of history that is often forgotten.

The Armenian genocide is the background to this story of love, charity, and incredible cruelty. The time line goes back and forth between the fictional modern day narrator and her ancestors' love story in Turkey during the first world war: one a Boston daughter of privilege and the other an Armenian who has lost his family to the horrors of a genocide that is much less well known than the Jewish Holocaust. The story is well told although some plot points are contrived. Do not be deceived by the light- hearted title; graphic scenes of torture remind us that civilization is but a thin veneer over ancient tribal warfare.

This is an interesting telling not only of the lives of the characters but almost more importantly the Armenian Genocide of 1915. Good people in horrible times, trying to help one another in the face of gruesome loses. A bit jumbled in the telling.

The author does a fair job of telling 2 stories, old and new. The narrator is searching for the story of the past and finds it filled with pain, love and heroes.