The Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian, 320 pages

This is my first Chris Bohjalian book, but it won't be my last.  My sister often recommends books to me and she told me about this one.  This is a novel about the Armenian genocide in 1915 at the hands of Turkey.  All I knew about the genocide is that it happened long ago and that the Turks have never apologized for it, nor called it genocide.

There are two narratives in this story.  The first involves a female novelist, Laura Petrosian, who is writing a fictionalized account of her grandparents story.  The second narrative is the story of her grandparents in 1915.  Elizabeth Endicott is a young Boston woman who goes to Alleppo, Syria with her father to provide aid on behalf of the Friends of Armenia.  She falls in love with an Armenian man, Armen Petrosian, who has so far escaped the genocide and is in Alleppo trying to find out exactly how his wife and infant daughter perished in the forced march from their home across the desert to Alleppo.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes historical fiction, good writing or a good story.  However, be warned that it is often heart wrenching.  I listened to the book and at the end of the audiobook there was an interview with the author who said he purposely had two narratives in order to give readers a break from the horrific details of the genocide.  I appreciated that break.