You are warmly invited to the launch of the first meeting of the Armenian Institute Book Club.  Our inaugural book will be Zabel Yessayan’s memoir The Gardens of Silihdar (1935) and the session will be hosted and introduced by Nouritza Matossian. We will share readings and discussions on the author and the text, enjoy discussion, in Armenian and English, over a glass and a nibble. Copies of the English edition may be obtained from the Armenian Institute and the Armenian edition is to be found online.

 Nouritza comments, You have shared with us your love of reading and listening to fine Armenian writing, be it poetry or prose. However some of us cannot speed read in Armenian or would appreciate help from those who are well versed in the language and literature. Our aim is to create a level playing field by aiming to read a book of literary merit written in Armenian and translated into English. This towering writer's own life (1878-1943) makes for a dramatic if not tragic novel.  Her writings include a powerful body of poetry, fiction, eye-witness accounts of the killings of Armenians in Adana 1909 and later work with orphans of 1915. Finally her life ended in Armenia with her imprisonment and death. Despite the horrors she lived through and recounted, this book is the lucid, tender and elegant remembrance of her early years in Constantinople among Armenians, Greeks and Turks.  

Please note:  The AI Book Club will continue every other month with a new leader selecting the book to be read and discussed.  These may be in Armenian, in English (or both as this time), and other languages with English translations. The next event will take place in May and the chosen book will be introduced by Gagik Stepan-Sarkissian.

If possible, please let us know if you are planning to attend but we would love to see you without a prior booking as well. 

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Supported by National Heritage Lottery Fund