Armenia: The Sandcastle Girls

One of my sorority sisters was Armenian, and she talked about being Armenian a lot. She was involved in different Armenian cultural groups off campus, and her formal dates were always fellow members. I was kind of like, whatever, it’s nice that she’s interested in the country of her ancestry, but it’s also kind of weird that she’s always doing things off campus. Shortly after graduation, I read Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Bluebeard. I suddenly realized why Armenia was such a large part of my friend’s life.

Until I read Vonnegut’s book, I had no idea about the Armenian genocide of 1915-1923. It is not taught well or discussed much, in large part because Turkey considers the subject to be off limits. But it resulted in the deaths of 1.5 million people as well as untold trauma and hardship. Bluebeard is about an Armenian-American artist, the morality of art, and the guilt that comes with surving the horror of genocide.

I’m working through the A countries in my Reading Around the World challenge, and that brings me to Armenia and The Sandcastle Girls The book has strong characters and a strong, if occasionally unrealistic, plot. Such is the way of stories that have strong romance as well as strong characters! It involves a young American woman who goes to Syria in 1915 to aid the Armenian refugees there. She meets a dashing Armenian man, who has managed to escape from the Turks and who is out to avenge the death of his wife and daughter by their hands. And is the story of their granddaughter, who discovers the history that her grandparents did not want to discuss.

I was impressed by the plotting and pace of The Sandcastle Girls, and I was continually reminded that human beings are so horrible to each other. One of the many reasons that I love to travel is that it helps everyone learn more about each other and so, it is hoped, we will all figure out how to get along better. Or maybe that’s just something I like to believe, but it is not true at all.