1.5 stars

Current day – an author (?) is investigating some family history of her grandparents that included the Armenian genocide in 1915.
1915 – a couple of storylines. Elizabeth and Armen in Syria. Also a little orphan girl and someone who tries to help her.

Sad summary, I know. I just never got interested, so I really didn’t care or pay attention to what was happening in the book. The author’s note tells me he is Armenian. ( )

This is historical fiction about the Armenian Genocide. It is well told, but rough (hence the average score), as you might imagine given the subject. I'm not a fan of violence but there's probably no way to properly explain such a tragic piece of history. I learned about a subject I'd known nothing about. ( )

I have very mixed feelings about The Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian. On one hand this is an unforgettable piece of historical fiction detailing the Armenian genocide by the Turks that occurred during World War 1. I was fascinated to learn more about this event and it’s setting. One of the things that I really missed was a map. The story involves forced marches and battles and a map would have helped define what I was reading about.

The story unfolds in two timelines which in this case I didn’t like. The story of Elizabeth, an American missionary and Armen, an Armenian who was searching for news about his wife and child, is set in 1915 was interesting and should have been allowed to stand alone. Instead the second story line involved Elizabeth’s granddaughter, Laura, who introduced herself as the author of the book. I found this story line redundant and often felt it was being used simply as a place to dump information.

The Sandcastle Girls is my first book by this author and although I didn’t love it, I will definitely read more from Bohjalian as his writing is strong and powerful. I only wish it hadn’t been delivered in the two story line format as I felt that took away from the “historical fiction” part of the story. ( )

When Elizabeth Endicott arrives in Aleppo, Syria she has a diploma from Mount Holyoke, a crash course in nursing, and only the most basic grasp of the Armenian language. The year is 1915 and she has volunteered on behalf of the Boston-based Friends of Armenia to help deliver food and medical aid to refugees of the Armenian genocide. There Elizabeth becomes friendly with Armen, a young Armenian engineer who has already lost his wife and infant daughter. When Armen leaves Aleppo and travels south into Egypt to join the British army, he begins to write Elizabeth letters, and comes to realize that he has fallen in love with the wealthy, young American woman who is so different from the wife he lost.

Fast forward to the present day, where we meet Laura Petrosian, a novelist living in suburban New York. Although her grandparents' ornate Pelham home was affectionately nicknamed "The Ottoman Annex," Laura has never really given her Armenian heritage much thought. But when an old friend calls, claiming to have seen a newspaper photo of Laura's grandmother promoting an exhibit at a Boston museum, Laura embarks on a journey back through her family's history that reveals love, loss - and a wrenching secret that has been buried for generations. ( )

I didn't care for the switching back and forth between first and third person. The novel was very choppy. However, it was a good story and I learned a lot about the Armenian genocide. ( )