SKYLARK FARM

Kirkus Reviews
November 1, 2006

One family’s heartbreaking experience during the 1915 Armenian
genocide.

In a small Anatolian hill town, Turks and Armenians live together
in relative harmony for generations. But when, in 1915, the Ottoman
Empire allies itself with Germany in the brewing world war, Turkish
citizens are forced to take sides. Sempad Arslanian, however, remains
oblivious to political change.

Head of his large, wealthy clan and benefactor to his neighbors —
Turk, Greek and Armenian alike — he spends the Spring of 1915
joyfully preparing for a reunion with his brother Yerwant, who,
at 13, left Skylark Farm, the family’s country estate, to study in
Italy. Preparations by both brothers rival ceremonial planning for
royal visits: Sempad orders stained glass windows from England and
levels a pasture for a tennis court; Yerwant outfits a red Isotta
Fraschini for his road trip south, his monogram in silver on the
doors, and stocks it with a great number of small gold and silver
gifts to give away on his arrival. On May 24, days before Yerwant is
to leave, Italy closes its borders and joins the War. And in Sempad’s
village, as throughout the Empire, all Armenian heads of household
are arrested. Sempad flees from his house in town to Skylark Farm.

What happens there — later that night the freshly dug tennis court is
used as a mass grave for all the Arslanian men — is only the first
of countless horrors the Arslanian women (and one boy disguised as
a girl) endure on their forced death-march across the Syrian desert,
where they are raided periodically by the Kurds, raped by their Young
Turk "guides" and starved. The story of survival that follows is the
unexpected solace of this fearless tale.

An Armenian Schindler’s List.

Publication Date: 1/24/2007 0:00:00 Publisher: Knopf Stage: Adult Star:
1 ISBN: 1-4000-4435-9 Price: $23.95 Author: Arslan, Antonia

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress