What do you know about the Armenian Genocide of 1915? About World War I, in general? I am ashamed to say that it wasn't until I have really dug into this project of virtually traveling across all the countries of Europe, that I have begun to understand what actually happened during that time period. I previously had a very basic overview and understanding, but it is novels like this one that are helping me to really fill in the gaps of my own knowledge. I have learned and read so much about World War II over the years, so I am very curious why World War I was only glossed over during all the academic lessons I had throughout my education. I remember learning a tiny bit about the "Fall of the Ottoman Empire" however, it felt like a study of maps and of ancient history. I was in high school in the 1990s - I imagine there were survivors still alive at that time who would remember the horrors of the experience. However, I don't believe I ever heard or read a first-hand account of an experience of life during that time. One of the more pressing questions I have is, why? Why were the events of this time pushed aside from my educational curriculum, especially when the context would be so helpful in framing many of today's world events and conflicts. I am grateful to the author of this book and to other reading I am doing that is inspiring me to gain a more full understanding.
The Sandcastle Girls is set mostly in Aleppo, Syria, which currently is separated from Armenia by a section of Turkey. The primary character of the novel is an American student from the Boston area who has, in 1915, followed her father - a doctor - to the region in order to help care for the Armenian woman and children who are being marched across the desert, many to their deaths, as a part of what we would ultimately understand to be the Armenian Genocide, during which 1.5 Million Armenians were killed by the Ottoman Empire. While the book does not spend very much time in Armenia itself, it does introduce us to many Armenians and gives us insight into their beautiful culture, and the trauma that so many faced during that time, and has been carried by its people for generations since.
While informing us of the atrocities faced by Armenians, which were very hard and important to read, this novel also asks some more universal questions of us.
How possible is love and marriage between two people who come from drastically different cultures, life experiences and traumas?
Who writes our history curriculums, and why do they get to do that? How much of what we learn is universally understood history of the world, and how much is shielded from us, for political or other reasons? Why?
What's happened in Armenia and to the Armenian people over the 100 years since?
As we read through the rest of the countries in that region, our understanding will expand. I am looking forward to it!
Comments