Family of Shadows
Advance Praise
With what one can only describe as an artistic skill, Garin Hovannisian interleaves the micro-story of his resilient family with the macro-narrative of the Armenian Genocide. One swiftly learns to appreciate the true meaning of the word ‘indestructible’.
Christopher Hitchens, author of Hitch-22: A Memoir
The history of the Hovannisian family is an extraordinary saga, and Garin Hovannisian provides here a moving account of its survival and triumph through three generations. Weaving together history, culture, and original reporting, Family of Shadows is an inspired tribute, full of passion and appreciation for the genealogy of the Hovannisian family and its transformation into an American success story.
Dr. Vartan Gregorian, President of Carnegie Corporation of New York and author of The Road to Home: My Life and Times
Garin Hovannisian tells one of modern history’s great unexamined stories. Whether you are an Armenian American like me or come to this story anew, Family of Shadows will move you with the intensity and intimacy of its detail. The Hovannisian family lived the story of the extinction and resurrection of the Armenian nation, and we are lucky that Garin Hovannisian has put it all down on paper so that the world can understand.
David Ignatius, columnist for The Washington Post and author of Body of Lies
Garin Hovannisian brings a historian’s rigor, a poet’s lyricism, and a native son’s passion to this remarkable book. Intimate as memoir yet expansive as an epic, Family of Shadows puts the Armenian experience, in all its tragedy and triumph, into memorably human terms.
Samuel G. Freedman, author of Who She Was: My Search for My Mother’s Life
