LONDON — The latest book by author Serge Momjian, Gateway to Armenia: One Diasporan’s Journey in the Past and Present, is about a subject close to his heart. The book, which came out this August, is released by Heddon Publishing.
The central character of the book is Haig Bedrossian, an American-Armenian journalist, has lived outside his ethnic community virtually all his life. It is not until he is in his 30s that he realizes his true self lacks Armenian identity, for which he feels a sudden twinge of guilt.
Shortly after a slow integration into his community and gaining a general understanding of Armenian history from the internet, he finds himself caught between two worlds, two different realities, and two conflicting sets of values: mainstream American and ethnic Armenian.
His first assignment is to visit the independent Armenia, where the private guided tours of historic sites and the discovery of the country’s art treasures significantly increase Haig’s knowledge of its rich culture, and engage him in a riveting conversation with his local guide about Armenia’s turbulent past, its challenging present and the evolving, complex relationship between homeland and diaspora.
Author Serge Momjian was born in Beirut in 1946. He moved to London in the 1970s and studied journalism then took a degree course in creative writing.
He has worked as a reporter, covering arts and culture for major publications, including Beirut’s Daily Star (the Middle East’s leading English-language newspaper) and London’s Events magazine. His feature articles have been translated and published in the Armenian press. By the time he reached his forties, he was devoting his time to writing novels. His works, all published in the United Kingdom, include Conflicting Motives, The Invisible Line, The Singer of the Opera, Memories of the Past, and Komitas, The Artist and The Martyr. The latter, in which he included dialogue for the first time, was written in commemoration of the centenary of the Armenian Genocide.
