THE KNOCK AT THE DOOR: A JOURNEY THROUGH THE DARKNESS OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

Publishers Weekly Reviews
March 5, 2007

The Knock at the Door: A Journey Through the Darkness of the
Armenian Genocide Margaret Ajemian Ahnert. Beaufort, $24.95 (240p)
ISBN 978-0-8253-0512-2

This personal, homespun account by an American of Armenian descent
interweaves two narratives in alternating chapters: Ahnert’s
mother Ester’s firsthand description of coming-of-age during, and
miraculously surviving, the Turkish-sponsored Armenian genocide of
1915, and the middle-aged author’s own tender yet urgent reflections
on her connection to the distant world of her 98-year-old mother.

Ester’s formidable personality, humor and abiding religious faith
pervade Ahnert’s debut, while the latter’s fluid transcription of
Ester’s story provides a frank and searing testimony, as well as
a vivid depiction of Armenian village life. While Ahnert’s oral
history doesn’t offer a rigorous historical account or analysis of
the systematic slaughter, but rather supplements works like Peter
Balakian’s The Burning Tigris and Taner Akcam’s A Shameful Act ,
its force lies in the interplay between the narratives of mother and
daughter. Together, their stories realize in intimate but accessible
terms the vagaries of historical memory and Ester’s determination to
tell the truth despite the understandable urge among some victims to
forget in the face of an official policy of denial from Turkey that
continues today.. (Apr.).