Aram’s Notebook, A Novel, Maria Angels Anglada (softcover)

Like any other fifteen-year-old boy, Aram might never have written the events of his still young life, except that he found himself suddenly plunged into exile, fleeing certain death. Inspired by the plight of the murdered modernist poet Daniel Varoujan (1884-1915), this novel by Maria Angels Anglada (1930-1999), evocatively translated from the original Catalan by Ara H. Merjian, follows Aram and his widowed mother on their flight from the genocide of 1915 towards a new life on—and under—the sea. From recollections of his father’s meditations on Homer to a life-changing apprenticeship as a coral fisherman off the coasts of Catolonia and Marseille, Aram’s tale dives into a future that might help redeem a harrowing past. Aram’s Notebook examines the Armenian Genocide through a narrative in which poets and poetry loom large. Aram’s tale evokes a struggle not simply for physical survival but for saving memory from the clutches of destruction.