Historical
The past is a foreign country, a place of stories and secrets.
James Stares has heard his English father talk about how the Great War affected the lives of his own father, mother and brother a lot; about how he met James’ mother in Cairo; about defending the Empire in Egypt at a time of rising unrest in the 1950s. But these stories are not all they seem.
More than anything, James wonders why his mother’s Armenian culture plays so little part in his upbringing.
Looking into his mother’s origins, James reaches out to his Armenian relatives in Canada, researching the circumstances of his maternal grandparents leaving Anatolia in a hurry in 1915… Yet much is left unsaid.
We follow James as he digs deeply into his family’s past, the English and the Armenian, and in the process comes to a better understanding of himself…
Here's what readers have to say about this book....
Song of the Land: A Book of Migrants and Memories by Robert Burden is a complex historical fiction novel that reads like a memoir. James Stares, born to an English father and Armenian mother, was raised as an English child with little knowledge of or exposure to his mother's people, language, history, or culture. James' parents met in Egypt; his father was stationed there at the end of World War Two and his mother, was an Armenian Egyptian subject employed with the British Forces. His father had to apply for permission to marry and after 2 years was finally granted approval. Following the death of his father, James is driven to find out more about his maternal side. Through interviews, travels, and research, James discovers a beautiful and harsh history. The book travels back and forth throughout the decades of the past 100 years looking at the rippling effects of the Armenian Genocide which took place at the beginning of WWI. This difficult time in history saw the mass murder and expulsion of so many Armenians from their homelands. James discovers the path that led to the relocation of his mother's family, and many others, to Egypt and beyond. As he explores his own history, James meets interesting people and hears powerful stories of survival and strength. Some parts of this book are absolutely gorgeous... "So many voices seemed to speak as one on the wind at this land's end, whispering the words 'remember me', an invocation to the singer of the song of the land. For my life, too, has been a search for home, in the growing uncertainty about who my people were or where I belonged. Some parts I found very confusing. I had to flip around through the book trying to establish relationships, voices, and timeline. The list of characters, a timeline, and a map would have been nice right at the front. Recommended for: people who like historical fiction, but not looking for romance or the standard WWI or WWII story. My rating: 4* 3* for the reading experience 5* for opening my eyes to the Armenian experience over the last 100 years shared on Goodreads (see user 3912461-kirsten) and StoryGraph (@kirstensviews) and will be shared later in week @foldingthepage instagram
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