The Sandcastle Girls in Around the World

Mar 31, 2012 Kat rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: udate, arc-review-complete, historical-fiction

Hands up who's heard of the Amernian genocide during World War I? I certainly hadn't, so when I learnt that Chris Bohjalian's newest book drew from both his own Armenian background, and the Armenian genocide, it instantly had my attention.

Told in alternating POVs and across two timeframes, The Sandcastle Girls is set in 1915 Syria and 2012 USA, as an author seeks more information on her grandparents, Armenian Armen and Bostonian Elizabeth and the atrocities of the Armenian genocide, something th ...more

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Sep 14, 2012 Wendy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: middle-east, fiction, historical, audio-book, 52-books-atw, 2012

Wow -- a breathtaking story masterfully told by 2 narrators. I had only a minimal level of knowledge about the specifics of the Armenian genocide. The story focuses on 2 main characters -- the grandmother and her experiences as an American who goes to Aleppo to bring aid to the Armenian refugees and falls in love (and marries) an Armenian man, and her grand daughter who wants to reconnect with her Armenian heritage and the story of her grandparents. The story goes back and forth between the gran ...more

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Dec 16, 2012 Joy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: around-the-world-in-80-books

I don't even know where to begin with this post. C.S. Lewis once said, "We read to know we are not alone." After finishing The Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian, I feel that statement to ever so true. Sometimes a book, even a work of fiction, can open your eyes to people, events, places, and issues that you had never seen before. For me, with this book, it was the murder of a million and a half Armenians in 1915. Or as Bohjalian calls it, "the Slaughter You Know Next to Nothing About".

Bohjalia ...more

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Jul 21, 2018 Christelle rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I truly enjoyed this audiobook with the two narrators.

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Apr 10, 2012 Sara rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 52-around-the-world, 2013, historical-fiction, wwi, armenia

I really had high hopes for this book, but unfortunately, it fell short of that. I believe Bohjalian tried very hard to explain the disaster of Armenian genocide in this book to the extend that some parts read like a screen play.
There are many other books written on Armenian genocide among them Gendarme and The Arrarat that were more enjoyable than Bohjalian work.

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