TALLAHASSEE COMMISSIONER’S NOVEL ATTRACTS LITERARY INTEREST
By Julian Pecquet
Tallahassee Democrat
article?AID=/20080519/NEWS01/805190320/1010
May 19 2008
FL
When he wasn’t busy practicing law or boning up on local government
issues, Tallahassee City Commissioner Mark Mustian spent the past
three years exploring his family’s Armenian roots.
The result: A new novel, "The Gendarme," that has caught the eye of
publishers around the world.
The story focuses on a retired Turkish policeman who moves to
America and, in his old age, remembers his role in deporting Armenian
Christians to Syria during the waning days of the Ottoman Empire.
Over the past couple of months, the manuscript has been placed with
G. P. Putnam’s Sons, a division of Penguin Group (USA), which has
sold the rights in six foreign countries — Italy, Israel, Brazil,
France, Spain and Greece. It’s expected to be available by next year.
Mustian credits his topic’s controversy for the interest it’s getting
abroad.
It’s a crime in Turkey to identify the death of an estimated 1.5
million Armenians during World War I as genocide. Last year, when
a U.S. House committee did so, the Turkish government recalled its
ambassador to Washington and threatened to withdraw its support for
the war in Iraq.
Mustian said he got interested in the topic because he’d read
survivors’ tales, but had never seen anything written from the other
point of view. He has never been to Turkey, and complemented his
library research by asking for help from Turkish students at Florida
State University. But the first student who answered his ad soon
returned the manuscript.
"It was kind of an eye opener that the first person who said they’d do
it, brought the book back the next day and said ‘No, I can’t do it’,"
Mustian said.
This is Mustian’s second novel. His first, "The Return," told the
story of a Brazilian woman claiming to be Christ reborn. It was
published by Pineapple Press in May 2000.
Paul Shepherd, a writer in residence at Florida State University who
teaches creative writing, praised the new book.
"There are probably two things that in my mind go into a really
excellent novel: a gripping story and a character that really
comes alive," said Shepherd, a fellow church member of Mustian’s at
St. Stephen Lutheran Church.
"The guy is a really complex character — your feelings for him are
challenged as you read the book." Shepherd said. "I found myself
months after I read the book thinking of this guy’s actions. He’s an
incredibly compelling character."