Novel Portrays Armenian Family in Nazi-Occupied Paris

Kricorian vividly paints the circumstances of Paris at the time, especially the constant struggle to obtain food. The family exists to a large degree on a diet of turnips and rutabagas, supplemented occasionally by other vegetables or perhaps a chicken. The streets are flooded with German soldiers and officers who attempt to opportune Maral and her friends.

An important strand in the novel’s plot is the developing romance between Maral and Zaven, as he becomes more and more deeply involved in the activities of the Resistance. He and Maral’s brother, Missak, take many risks, joining demonstrations, scribbling anti-Nazi graffiti on walls and distributing pamphlets.

The Genocide surfaces, in some respects, by its absence. It is present in Maral’s father’s tight-lipped silence about the past and in her

Aunt Shakeh’s depression. Another strand of plot involves the help the Pegorians extend to a Jewish family, the Lipskis, who have a 3-year-old daughter. When the Lipskis are swept up by the Nazis and sent to a concentration camp, the Pegorians manage to save the child and to smuggle her, with the help of Resistance members, out of Paris to live with an aunt in the country.

An aspect of Armenia’s involvement in the war is represented by the character of Andon Shirvanian, an Armenian, persuaded by General Dro to join the German army in order to escape death by starvation in a Soviet POW camp. Handsome and eager to connect with the Armenian community in Paris, he is drawn into Maral’s circle with some surprising consequences.

There are tragedies for both the Pegorian and Kacherian families. However, Kricorian skillfully weaves the strands of the story to downplay, to a large extent, the tragic circumstances that affect many of the characters. It must be said she never digs very deep, but she keeps the story moving in such a way that the reader cannot fail to be engrossed in spite of some clumsy deus ex machina plot twists.