Three Apples Fell from Heaven

Three Apples Fell from Heaven

Aharonian Marcom, Micheline.
New York: Riverhead Books, 2002, 288 pages. ISBN 1573229156.

"I was born in 1915 on the Anatolian plateau, beneath a ubiquitous sky whose iridescent blue was like a fine lace veil covering my eyes. I saw the world through the openings and around the edges of the scalloped filet. I remember seeing the reaching branches and green leaves of the oak tree like hands in prayer, the grooves in the brown-gray tree bark like empty rivers, and the drifting of woolly cloud shapes like prehistoric beasts. I didn't know what to call these blue- edged pictures before my eyes, but I saw them clearly in the hours before my death."

Description:
Set in 1915-1917 -- Three Apples Fell from Heaven, a novel, reveals the Armenian Genocide through poetic language that conjures images of desperation and absolute agony yet allows love and strength of spirit to filter into this overwhelming narrative. Marcom's passion for her Armenian heritage spills across the novel as she brilliantly weaves religion, landscape, and the daily rituals of Anatolian Armenians into her chapters about a people doomed to the atrocities of the Turks. Possibly one of the best pieces of fiction written about the Armenian Genocide, Marcom brings the experience into vivid focus with the precision of a talented writer and studied historian.

Sample Chapters:

• This is the Story Rumor Writes
• Dickran Whose Name Went Unrecorded
• American Consulate