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The hundred-year walk : an Armenian odyssey / Dawn Anahid MacKeen.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: Boston : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016Copyright date: ©2016Description: xii, 338 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, map ; 24 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9780618982660
  • 0618982663
Subject(s): Genre/Form:
Contents:
Before. The lost world ; Empty plans ; The countdown ; Alphabet City -- The exile. Breaking stones ; People we don't mention ; Following orders ; Under the black tree ; Night train ; The interior ; Infidel mountains -- Red River. The headscarf ; Dreams traded for bread ; The bath ; Water's course ; The dead zone ; Hell ; Welcome to Syria ; The desert's end ; My shadow ; Tell the world ; The sandstorm -- Refuge. Betrayal ; The Church ; The Sheikh ; Two Hammuds ; Crossroads ; The feast ; Home ; One family -- Weddings and anniversaries.
Scope and content: "The inspiring story of a young Armenian's harrowing escape from genocide and of his granddaughter's quest to retrace his steps. Growing up, Dawn MacKeen heard fragments of her grandfather Stepan's story, of how he was swept up in the deadly mass deportation of Armenians during World War I and of how he miraculously managed to escape. Longing for a fuller picture of Stepan's life--and the lost home her family fled--Dawn travels alone to Turkey and Syria, across a landscape still rife with tension. Using his long-lost journals as a guide, she reconstructs her grandfather's odyssey to the far reaches of the Ottoman Empire, where he found himself in the midst of unspeakable atrocities. Part reportage, part memoir, The Hundred-Year Walk alternates between Stepan's tale of resilience and Dawn's remarkable journey, giving us a rare firsthand account of the twentieth century's first genocide. It's filled with edge-of-your-seat escapes and accounts of lifesaving kindnesses in the harsh desert. And it's in the desert that Dawn finds the unexpected: the secret to Stepan's survival"-- Provided by publisher.
Fiction notes: Click to open in new window
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library Biography Miskjian S. M154 Available 33111008365203
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

An epic tale of one man's courage in the face of genocide and his granddaughter's quest to tell his story



In the heart of the Ottoman Empire as World War I rages, Stepan Miskjian's world becomes undone. He is separated from his family as they are swept up in the government's mass deportation of Armenians into internment camps. Gradually realizing the unthinkable--that they are all being driven to their deaths--he fights, through starvation and thirst, not to lose hope. Just before killing squads slaughter his caravan during a forced desert march, Stepan manages to escape, making a perilous six-day trek to the Euphrates River carrying nothing more than two cups of water and one gold coin. In his desperate bid for survival, Stepan dons disguises, outmaneuvers gendarmes, and, when he least expects it, encounters the miraculous kindness of strangers.



The Hundred-Year Walk alternates between Stepan's saga and another journey that takes place a century later, after his family discovers his long-lost journals. Reading this rare firsthand account, his granddaughter Dawn MacKeen finds herself first drawn into the colorful bazaars before the war and then into the horrors Stepan later endured. Inspired to retrace his steps, she sets out alone to Turkey and Syria, shadowing her resourceful, resilient grandfather across a landscape still rife with tension. Withhis journals guiding her, she grows ever closer to the man she barely knew as a child. Their shared story is a testament to family, to home, and to the power of the human spirit to transcend the barriers of religion, ethnicity, and even time itself.



Includes bibliographical references (pages 300-338).

Before. The lost world ; Empty plans ; The countdown ; Alphabet City -- The exile. Breaking stones ; People we don't mention ; Following orders ; Under the black tree ; Night train ; The interior ; Infidel mountains -- Red River. The headscarf ; Dreams traded for bread ; The bath ; Water's course ; The dead zone ; Hell ; Welcome to Syria ; The desert's end ; My shadow ; Tell the world ; The sandstorm -- Refuge. Betrayal ; The Church ; The Sheikh ; Two Hammuds ; Crossroads ; The feast ; Home ; One family -- Weddings and anniversaries.

"The inspiring story of a young Armenian's harrowing escape from genocide and of his granddaughter's quest to retrace his steps. Growing up, Dawn MacKeen heard fragments of her grandfather Stepan's story, of how he was swept up in the deadly mass deportation of Armenians during World War I and of how he miraculously managed to escape. Longing for a fuller picture of Stepan's life--and the lost home her family fled--Dawn travels alone to Turkey and Syria, across a landscape still rife with tension. Using his long-lost journals as a guide, she reconstructs her grandfather's odyssey to the far reaches of the Ottoman Empire, where he found himself in the midst of unspeakable atrocities. Part reportage, part memoir, The Hundred-Year Walk alternates between Stepan's tale of resilience and Dawn's remarkable journey, giving us a rare firsthand account of the twentieth century's first genocide. It's filled with edge-of-your-seat escapes and accounts of lifesaving kindnesses in the harsh desert. And it's in the desert that Dawn finds the unexpected: the secret to Stepan's survival"-- Provided by publisher.

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