BELMONT, Mass.—Writer Garin K. Hovannisian, the author of the just-published Family of Shadows: A Century of Murder, Memory, and the Armenian American Dream (HarperCollins), will speak on Thurs., Sept. 30 at the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR) Center in Belmont. This is his only scheduled appearance in the Boston area.
As a world war rages through Europe in 1915, Ottoman authorities begin the systematic slaughter of 1.5 million Armenians—the first genocide of the 20th century. A teenage boy named Kaspar Hovannisian is one among a generation of Armenians who survive the murder of their families and ancestral homeland and escape to new destinies in the United States. Kaspar follows the “American dream” to the San Joaquin Valley of California. But memories of his homeland burn strong—a legacy of love, yearning, and faith in a national rebirth.
Kaspar’s son Richard leaves the family farm ready to defend the history of a lost nation against the forces of time and denial. He helps pioneer the field of Armenian studies in the United States as a professor at UCLA and becomes a world authority on genocide. Kaspar’s grandson Raffi is also haunted by the past, and in 1989 he leaves his law firm in Los Angeles to stage the original act of repatriation to Soviet Armenia, where he goes on to play a historic role in the creation of a new and independent republic as its first foreign minister.
In Family of Shadows, part investigative memoir and part history of the Armenian Diaspora, Garin Hovannisian tells his family’s story—a tale of tragedy, memory, and redemption which illuminates the long shadows that history casts on the lives of men.
Garin K. Hovannisian is a recipient of the Fulbright Fellowship in Creative Writing and the Lynton Award for Book Writing. A graduate of UCLA and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, he lives between Los Angeles and Yerevan. He has written for the Los Angeles Times, Liberty, and the literary journal Ararat.
The event begins at 8 p.m., at the NAASR Center on 395 Concord Ave. in Belmont. Admission to the event is free (donations appreciated). The NAASR Center is located opposite the First Armenian Church and next to the U.S. Post Office. Ample parking is available around the building and in adjacent areas. For more information, call (617) 489-1610, email hq@naasr.org, or write to NAASR, 395 Concord Ave., Belmont, MA 02478.
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