02282cam a2200301 i 4500 1459618080 TxAuBib 20240723120000.0 120928t20132012||||||||||||||||||||eng|u 9780307743916 0307743918 TxAuBib rda Bohjalian, Chris, 1962- The sandcastle girls [book] : a novel / Chris Bohjalian. 1st Vintage Contemporaries ed. New York : Vintage Contemporaries, 2013. ©2012. 299 pages : map ; 21 cm. txt rdacontent n rdamedia nc rdacarrier This tale travels between Aleppo, Syria, in 1915 and Bronxville, New York, in 2012, a sweeping historical love story steeped in the author's Armenian heritage. When Elizabeth Endicott arrives in Syria, she has a diploma from Mount Holyoke College, a crash course in nursing, and only the most basic grasp of the Armenian language. The First World War is spreading across Europe, and she has volunteered on behalf of the Boston-based Friends of Armenia to 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 to join the British Army in Egypt, 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. Flash forward to the present, where we meet Laura Petrosian, a novelist living in suburban New York. 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. 20240723. Armenian Americans Fiction. Armenian massacres, 1915-1923 Fiction. New York (N.Y) History 21st century Fiction. Historical fiction. fast