Description
Like Tatiana de Rosnay's "Sarah's Key" and Jenna Blum's "Those Who Save Us," "All the Light There Was" is an unforgettable portrait of human lives caught in the crosswinds of history. From a writer praised for her "haunting and convincing" prose (Joyce Carol Oates, "The New Yorker"), comes a lyrical, finely wrought novel about family loyalty, secret love, and the many faces of resistance. On the day the Nazis march down the Rue de Belleville, Maral Pegorian is fourteen years old, living with her family, who, along with many other Armenians who survived the genocide in their homeland, have come to Paris to start over. The adults immediately set about gathering food and provisions, bracing for the deprivation they know all too well; but Maral, her brother Missak, and her beloved, Zaven, are spurred to action of another sort, finding secret and not-so-secret ways to resist their oppressors. Only when Zaven flees with his brother Barkev to avoid conscription does Maral realize that the Occupation is not simply a temporary outrage to be endured. After many fraught months, just one brother returns, changing the contours of Maral's world completely. "Nancy Kricorian is a gem, her work subtle and nuanced and moving. "All the Light There Was" brings Nazi-occupied Paris vividly, tragically, and heroically to life." --Chris Bohjalian, author of "The Sandcastle Girls" and "Midwives"
