Good Book Club Book

The Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Very good book! Elizabeth, American born and bred, has Armenian ancestors, although she is very far removed from what that actually means. She goes on a "mission" trip with her father, and learns about a world very different from the one in which she is brought up, and falls in love with an Armenian soldier. Elizabeth's group is in Turkey to help the war torn refugees. She sees women marched naked through the town, she sees orphans torn from the camps, she understands that men and boys are killed so that their population will die out.

Elizabeth manages to help a widow and a child by housing them with her in the American compound. It's not a popular decision, but she stays her course.

Threaded through the book are the stories behind the widow, the child, her Armenian love, and herself. She weds her lover, and ends up living in the states. Her grand-daughter becomes obsessed with finding out her grandmother's story (Elizabeth) and we learn how that impacts her and her family.

I'd recommend this for a book club group - there would be lots of great discussion.


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