msjamgochian'sinfinitebooklist

A sweeping, gut-wrenching, intergenerational, epic story of love, war, and the Armenian genocide that moves between modern day Bronxville, New York, and Aleppo, Syria, in 1915. After receiving a call from a friend informing her that a photo of her grandmother has appeared in a local newspaper advertising an exhibit about "the Slaughter You Know Next to Nothing About," middle-aged novelist Laura Petrosian begins to explore her Armenian roots, uncovering a history that is unsettling and complex. Flash back to 1915, and we meet Laura's grandparents, fresh out of college Elizabeth Endicott, who has accompanied her father to Aleppo as a volunteer for the Friends of Armenia, and Armen Petrosian, an Armenian engineer who has recently lost his family to the genocide. When the two meet, sparks collide, and a relationship builds against the backdrop of WWI and the decimation of one and a half million Armenians at the hands of the Turks. Stunned by the painful reality of her famil...

A bitterly sad historical novel about a largely overlooked event : the 1941 deportation and genocide of Lithuanians during Stalin's reign of terror. Fifteen year-old Lina's life path is forever altered when she, her mother, and younger brother Jonas are arrested in their home and sentenced to work to death in a Siberian labor camp. The opening scene is pure cinema as Lina's mother, given twenty minutes to prepare for their brutal journey, destroys the family china, smashing each piece on the floor, while terrified Lina forgets to change out of her nightgown as she scrambles to gather a few art supplies. When they arrive at the train station, their car is marked 'thieves and prostitutes,' and their horrific journey begins. Shelf this alongside The Diary of Anne Frank, and Adam Bagdasarian's Forgotten Fire for a study of genocide in the 20th century. Grade 7+