Skylark Farm

by: Antonia Arslan

Published by: Vintage Books

Reviewed by Sharon Broom

The ravages of war are merciless in its treatment of civilians. And often, unless the media feels a particular people are important enough, the genocide goes largely unnoticed by the rest of the world. Except for those who live. We all know about the holocaust of WW II, but how many of us know about the 1915 Armenian Genocide of WWI?

Antonia Arslan’s debut novel, Skylark Farm, is the personal recounting, in novel form, of her ancestors who were killed and those who managed to survive the WWI Armenian Genocide.

Sempad Arslan looks forward to his older brother’s return. Yerwant traveled to Italy as a teenager to study–stayed forty years. Sempad’s preparations are elaborate and thorough, including updating Skylark Farm, the family’s country home. Yerwant is also preparing to travel in a new car filled with gifts.

Before the family reunion can take place, WWI begins. Italy entered the war and the borders were closed, thus preventing Yerwant’s travel. Yerwant’s concern about his family’s safety continues to rise. He is unaware that there is a plan underway to destroy Turkey’s Armenian minority population.

Meanwhile all the Armenian men are rounded up and murdered. The city’s women and girls are forced into prison camps where they starve, have little water, are humiliated and suffer horrible cruelties. A law makes the punishment death for anyone who helps the Armenians.

The novel follows the family’s desperate attempts to live and the people who help them survive. Early on you know who will survive, yet it doesn’t make you put down the book as you are compelled to continue reading the ”˜real’ life drama.

You can’t quite believe man’s inhumanity. Would we risk our lives to save people who have been determined, by ”˜someone,’ to have no value? We also must confront the evil of people and the consequences of evil running rampant.

Arslan’s account of her family’s history will leave you breathless and choking back more than a few tears. When I become too complacent about the ”˜untouchable’ life I live, it would be good to reread it.

Armchair Interviews says: Highly recommended. Skylark Farm is a keeper.