Skylark Farm
By (Author) Antonia Arslan
Translated by Geoffrey Brock
Atlantic Books
Atlantic Books
1st July 2008
Main
United Kingdom
General
Fiction
853.92
288
Width 127mm, Height 196mm, Spine 22mm
268g
Skylark Farm tells of one Armenian family's immense journey across the Anatolian mountains as they flee the genocide of 1915. It is an unforgettable story of survival against the odds. At the age of thirteen, Yerwant left his home in the Anatolian hills of Turkey to study at an Armenian boarding school in Venice. Now, in May 1915, forty years later, he is planning a long-awaited reunion with his relatives at their family home, Skylark Farm. But while joyful preparations for Yerwant's arrival are being made in the town of his birth, Italy closes its borders as it enters the Great War. At the same time, in Turkey, Yerwant's family begins a brutal odyssey of hunger and humiliation at the hands of the Young Turks, the political movement determined to rid their nation of minorities. Fighting violence with love, courage and hope, four of the family's children set out on a dangerous and daring course of their own: to reach Yerwant, and safety, in Italy. Antonia Arslan draws on the history of her own family to tell the story of Skylark Farm. She has transformed the 'obscure memories' that are her heritage into a novel as lyrical and poignant as a fable.
Sombre and richly steeped in symbolism, Arslan's is a book to savour. -- Catherine Taylor * Guardian *
Epic in sweep and heartbreaking in tone. -- Jeremy Seal * Daily Telegraph *
This soul-shaking novel feels like a masterpiece. * Booklist (Starred Review) *
An Armenian Schindler's List. * Kirkus *
Antonia Arslan, who lives in Padua, has a degree in archaeology and was Professor of Modern and Contemporary Italian Literature at the University of Padua. Skylark Farm is her first novel.