Armenian Literature Fiction Heart and Soul
Explore the heart and soul of Armenian literature with our curated list of fiction books. Discover timeless stories that capture the essence of Armenian culture, emotions, and heritage.
Book
Dreams of the Compass Rose
by Vera Nazarian
What is the nature of evil? When a young warrior of a dark race finds himself bound in servitude to a beautiful cruel princess, his loyalty becomes entwined with something more horrifying and mysterious than endless night falling over the ancient desert.
Book
Dreams of the Compass Rose
by Vera Nazarian
What is the nature of evil? When a young warrior of a dark race finds himself bound in servitude to a beautiful cruel princess, his loyalty becomes entwined with something more horrifying and mysterious than endless night falling over the ancient desert. When a courageous young servant reveals her hidden wisdom to the madman conqueror of the world, her fate is joined to a nightmare suspended beyond death and outside the universe. Two souls from different times -- their destinies connected through hundreds of other lives and generations, through soft whispers of the wind, through ancient truths that lie buried in an island between worlds. Both souls enslaved through dream and desire in an endless conflict between truth and illusion. They can only be set free by the wonder of the Compass Rose.
Book
The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze, and Other Stories
by William Saroyan
The protagonists sailing about The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze are often Armenian, Jewish, Chinese, Polish, African, or Irish; and all are treated with what The San Francisco Chronicle called "the old Saroyan luminousness, which is to say with an insight as fresh as that of an unusually perceptive child."
Book
The Forty Days of Musa Dagh
by Franz Werfel
During World War I, Gabriel Bagradian learns of Turkish plans to exterminate the Armenians, and leads his village to the mountain Musa Dagh in hopes of defending themselves.
Book
Passage to Ararat
by Michael J. Arlen
Discusses the author's search for identity, personal history, and connections to his Armenian heritage that his father severed five decades earlier. Along the way, Arlen weaves his own stories of traveling in the Middle East with the greater sweep of Armenian history, exploring the meaning of "being Armenian", and understanding the complicated forces that drove his father--and himself. --From publisher description.
Book
My Name is Aram
by William Saroyan
William Saroyan's most celebrated work of short fiction- a boy's view of the American Dream. Aram Garoghlanian was a Californian, born in Fresno on the other side of the Southern Pacific tracks. But he was also part of a large, sprawling family of immigrant Armenians--a whole tribe of eccentric uncles, brawling cousins, and gentle women. Through these unforgettable, often hilarious characters Aram comes to understand life, courage, and the power of dreams. Whether it is fierce Uncle Khosrove who yells "Pay no attention to it" in any situation, Uncle Melik, who tries to grow pomegranate trees in the desert, or angelic-looking Cousin Arak who gets Arma into classroom scrapes, Aram's visions are shaped and colored by this tum-of-the-century clan. Like Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio, William Saroyan's brilliant short stories in "My Name Is Aram work together to create a picture of a time, a place, and a boy's world-a truly classic account of an impoverished family newly arrived in America-rich in matters of the heart.