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Author: Homero Aridjis
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781942134756
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages :
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Book Description
This powerful and moving historical novel is inspired by the written recollections and the memories that haunted the author's father, Nicias Aridjis,--a captain in the Greek army, who returned from the fields of battle to Smyrna, 50 miles southeast of his hometown of Tire, in 1922 just as Turkish forces captured this cosmopolitan port city. Smyrna in Flames , by the internationally acclaimed Mexican writer and poet Homero Aridjis, lays bare the unimaginable events and horrors that took place for nine days between September 13 and 22--known as the Smyrna Catastrophe. After capturing Smyrna, Turkish forces went on a rampage, torturing and massacring tens of thousands of Greeks and Armenians and devastating the city--in particular, the Greek and Armenian quarters--by deliberately setting disastrous fires. After years of fighting in World War I and the Greco-Turkish War, Nicias enters a Smyrna under siege. He desperately moves through the city in search of Eurydice, the love of his life whom he left behind. Wandering the streets, the sounds of hopelessness commingle in his mind with echoes of the ancient Greek poets who sang of the city's past glories. Images and voices, suggestive of Homeric ghosts adrift in a catastrophic scenario, conjure up a mythological, historical, geographical quest that, in the manner of classical epic, hovers between the heroic and the horrible, illustrating the depths and depravity of the human soul. Making his way from district to district, evading capture, Nicias observes the last vestiges of normal life and witnesses unspeakable horrors committed by roaming Turkish forces and partisans who are randomly abusing and raping Greek and Armenian women and torturing and murdering their men. What he experiences is literally a living hell unfolding before his eyes. As Nicias passes familiar buildings, cafes, and churches, his mind and soul fill with nostalgia for his earlier life and the promise of love. Fortunately for the reader, the brutal and bloodthirsty scenes of the Smyrna Catastrophe are leavened by the voice of this "visionary poet of lyrical bliss, crystalline concentrations and infinite spaces," as Kenneth Rexroth has described Aridjis. His portrayal of a genocide-in-progress floods our senses, turning these chaotic scenes into a poignant drama. At the very end, aboard one of the last ships out of Smyrna before its final fall, Nicias scours the throng of thousands of desperate Greeks and Armenians pressing forward to escape on already overcrowded ships. Suddenly Turkish forces move in to shoot and stab, and, overwhelmed by the all-pervasive tragedy, Nicias abandons Smyrna and Asia Minor forever. Nicias is not a historian, he is an eyewitness and a survivor, and while the book is written in the context of his personal experiences, knowledge and conjectures of the events of the time, Nicias's son Homero has enriched the narrative with plausible fictional episodes and reports by journalists and written testimony by men and women who lived through the Smyrna Catastrophe.
Author: Homero Aridjis
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781942134756
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages :
Get Book Here
Book Description
This powerful and moving historical novel is inspired by the written recollections and the memories that haunted the author's father, Nicias Aridjis,--a captain in the Greek army, who returned from the fields of battle to Smyrna, 50 miles southeast of his hometown of Tire, in 1922 just as Turkish forces captured this cosmopolitan port city. Smyrna in Flames , by the internationally acclaimed Mexican writer and poet Homero Aridjis, lays bare the unimaginable events and horrors that took place for nine days between September 13 and 22--known as the Smyrna Catastrophe. After capturing Smyrna, Turkish forces went on a rampage, torturing and massacring tens of thousands of Greeks and Armenians and devastating the city--in particular, the Greek and Armenian quarters--by deliberately setting disastrous fires. After years of fighting in World War I and the Greco-Turkish War, Nicias enters a Smyrna under siege. He desperately moves through the city in search of Eurydice, the love of his life whom he left behind. Wandering the streets, the sounds of hopelessness commingle in his mind with echoes of the ancient Greek poets who sang of the city's past glories. Images and voices, suggestive of Homeric ghosts adrift in a catastrophic scenario, conjure up a mythological, historical, geographical quest that, in the manner of classical epic, hovers between the heroic and the horrible, illustrating the depths and depravity of the human soul. Making his way from district to district, evading capture, Nicias observes the last vestiges of normal life and witnesses unspeakable horrors committed by roaming Turkish forces and partisans who are randomly abusing and raping Greek and Armenian women and torturing and murdering their men. What he experiences is literally a living hell unfolding before his eyes. As Nicias passes familiar buildings, cafes, and churches, his mind and soul fill with nostalgia for his earlier life and the promise of love. Fortunately for the reader, the brutal and bloodthirsty scenes of the Smyrna Catastrophe are leavened by the voice of this "visionary poet of lyrical bliss, crystalline concentrations and infinite spaces," as Kenneth Rexroth has described Aridjis. His portrayal of a genocide-in-progress floods our senses, turning these chaotic scenes into a poignant drama. At the very end, aboard one of the last ships out of Smyrna before its final fall, Nicias scours the throng of thousands of desperate Greeks and Armenians pressing forward to escape on already overcrowded ships. Suddenly Turkish forces move in to shoot and stab, and, overwhelmed by the all-pervasive tragedy, Nicias abandons Smyrna and Asia Minor forever. Nicias is not a historian, he is an eyewitness and a survivor, and while the book is written in the context of his personal experiences, knowledge and conjectures of the events of the time, Nicias's son Homero has enriched the narrative with plausible fictional episodes and reports by journalists and written testimony by men and women who lived through the Smyrna Catastrophe.
Author: Defne Suman
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1800246986
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 475
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Book Description
September 1905. At the heart of the Ottoman Empire, in the ancient city of Smyrna, Scheherazade is born to an opium-dazed mother. At the very same moment, an Indian spy sails into the golden-hued, sycamore-scented city with a secret mission from the British Empire. When he leaves, 17 years later, it will be to the smell of kerosene and smoke as the city, and its people, are engulfed in flames. Told through the intertwining fates of a Levantine, a Greek, a Turkish and an Armenian family, this unforgettable novel reveals a city, and a culture, now lost to time. 'Fiercely intelligent, finely textured and achingly beautiful' Elif Shafak 'Utterly delightful' Buki Papillon 'This rich tale of love and loss gives voice to the silenced, and adds music to their histories' Maureen Freely, Chair, English PEN 'A must-read' Ayse Arman, Hu ̈rriyet 'A symphony of literature' Açik Radyo 'Defne Suman is a story-teller. She tells the story of how love, emotions and identities are influenced by socio-political events of a lifetime' Cumhuriyet Newspaper 'A wonderfully braided story of family secrets set in the magical city of Smyrna, told in luminous prose' Lou Ureneck, author of Smyrna, September 1922
Author: Jeffrey Eugenides
Publisher: Vintage Canada
ISBN: 0307401944
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 546
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Book Description
Spanning eight decades and chronicling the wild ride of a Greek-American family through the vicissitudes of the twentieth century, Jeffrey Eugenides’ witty, exuberant novel on one level tells a traditional story about three generations of a fantastic, absurd, lovable immigrant family -- blessed and cursed with generous doses of tragedy and high comedy. But there’s a provocative twist. Cal, the narrator -- also Callie -- is a hermaphrodite. And the explanation for this takes us spooling back in time, through a breathtaking review of the twentieth century, to 1922, when the Turks sacked Smyrna and Callie’s grandparents fled for their lives. Back to a tiny village in Asia Minor where two lovers, and one rare genetic mutation, set our narrator’s life in motion. Middlesex is a grand, utterly original fable of crossed bloodlines, the intricacies of gender, and the deep, untidy promptings of desire. It’s a brilliant exploration of divided people, divided families, divided cities and nations -- the connected halves that make up ourselves and our world.
Author: Benny Morris
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 067491645X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 673
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Book Description
A Financial Times Book of the Year A Foreign Affairs Book of the Year A Spectator Book of the Year “A landmark contribution to the study of these epochal events.” —Times Literary Supplement “Brilliantly researched and written...casts a careful eye upon the ghastly events that took place in the final decades of the Ottoman empire, when its rulers decided to annihilate their Christian subjects...Hitler and the Nazis gleaned lessons from this genocide that they then applied to their own efforts to extirpate Jews.” —Jacob Heilbrun, The Spectator Between 1894 and 1924, three waves of violence swept across Anatolia, targeting the region’s Christian minorities. By 1924, the Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks, once nearly a quarter of the population, had been reduced to 2 percent. Most historians have treated these waves as distinct, isolated events, and successive Turkish governments presented them as an unfortunate sequence of accidents. The Thirty-Year Genocide is the first account to show that all three were actually part of a single, continuing, and intentional effort to wipe out Anatolia’s Christian population. Despite the dramatic swing from the Islamizing autocracy of the sultan to the secularizing republicanism of the post–World War I period, the nation’s annihilationist policies were remarkably constant, with continual recourse to premeditated mass killing, homicidal deportation, forced conversion, and mass rape. And one thing more was a constant: the rallying cry of jihad. While not justified under the teachings of Islam, the killing of two million Christians was effected through the calculated exhortation of the Turks to create a pure Muslim nation. “A subtle diagnosis of why, at particular moments over a span of three decades, Ottoman rulers and their successors unleashed torrents of suffering.” —Bruce Clark, New York Times Book Review
Author: George N. Shirinian
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 1785334336
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 443
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Book Description
The final years of the Ottoman Empire were catastrophic ones for its non-Turkish, non-Muslim minorities. From 1913 to 1923, its rulers deported, killed, or otherwise persecuted staggering numbers of citizens in an attempt to preserve “Turkey for the Turks,” setting a modern precedent for how a regime can commit genocide in pursuit of political ends while largely escaping accountability. While this brutal history is most widely known in the case of the Armenian genocide, few appreciate the extent to which the Empire’s Assyrian and Greek subjects suffered and died under similar policies. This comprehensive volume is the first to broadly examine the genocides of the Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks in comparative fashion, analyzing the similarities and differences among them and giving crucial context to present-day calls for recognition.
Author: Amin Maalouf
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1448128048
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 402
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Book Description
There are ninety-nine names for God in the Koran, is it possible that there is a secret one-hundredth name? In this tale of magic and mystery, of love and danger, Balthasar's ultimate quest is to find the secret that could save the world. Before the dawn of the apocalyptic 'Year of the Beast' in 1666, Balthasar Embriaco, a Genoese Levantine merchant, sets out on an adventure that will take him across the breadth of the civilised world, from Constantinople, through the Mediterranean, to London shortly before the Great Fire. Balthasar's urgent quest is to track down a copy of one of the rarest and most coveted books ever printed, a volume called 'The Hundredth Name', its contents are thought to be of vital importance to the future of the world. There are ninety-nine names for God in the Koran, and merely to know this most secret hundredth name will, Balthasar believes, ensure his salvation.
Author: George R Zepp
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 1625843062
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 183
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Book Description
This collection uncovers the fascinating past of Tennessee’s legendary Music City from true tall tales to larger than life characters and much more. Perched on the banks of the Cumberland River, Nashville is best known for its role in the civil rights movement, world-class education and, of course, country music. In this unique collection of columns written for The Tennessean, journalist and longtime Tennessee native George Zepp illuminates a less familiar side of the city’s history. Here, readers will learn the secrets of Timothy Demonbreun, one of the city's first residents, who lived with his family in a cliff-top cave; Cortelia Clark, the blind bluesman who continued to perform on street corners after winning a Grammy award; and Nashville's own Cinderella story, which involved legendary radio personality Edgar Bergen and his ventriloquist protegee. Based on questions from readers across the nation, these little-known tales abound with Music City mystery and charm.
Author: Voltaire
Publisher: Prabhat Prakashan
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 155
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Book Description
Venture into the eerie and enigmatic with Ambrose Bierce’s collection of supernatural tales, "Can Such Things Be." This gripping anthology explores the boundaries of reality with stories that delve into the realms of the bizarre and the uncanny. What if the most unsettling experiences were not just figments of imagination but genuine encounters with the supernatural? Bierce’s masterful storytelling will leave you questioning the line between reality and the supernatural, challenging your perceptions of what is possible. With its chilling narratives and unsettling twists, this collection is perfect for readers who relish spine-tingling tales and the exploration of the unknown. Ideal for fans of classic horror and supernatural fiction. Are you prepared to confront the unsettling mysteries of "Can Such Things Be" and uncover the dark secrets that lie beyond the ordinary? Embrace the unknown—purchase "Can Such Things Be" today and dive into a world of supernatural intrigue and suspense!
Author: Mary Clay
Publisher: An IF Mystery
ISBN: 9780971042957
Category : Divorced people
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
Is there life after divorce? You bet! Meet the DAFFODILS* (*Divorced And Finally Free Of Deceitful, Insensitive, Licentious Scum) ***Movie/TV Rights Optioned*** Rebecca Leigh Stratton is divorced, depressed, and thoroughly disgusted. Thanks to her two-timing, asset-hiding, lawyer husband, Leigh faces the prospect of starting over at forty-six. Fortunately, her sassy, Southern sorority sisters, Penny Sue Parker and Ruthie Nichols, are old hands at divorce. The three single-again ladies take off for New Smyrna Beach, their college-days haunt. What they don't bargain for are old flames, fist fights, and gunfire. And, that's just the first day! From the Publisher: In the tradition of "The First Wives Club" and Anne George¿s acclaimed Southern Sisters Mysteries, Mary Clay gives us a hilarious novel about sorority sisters who come back together when the last of the trio divorces her two-timing husband. Yet a trip to the beach is anything but a relaxing respite when a body turns up and Penny Sue is implicated. From that point on chaos rules as the DAFFODILS try to clear Penny Sue's name amidst a hodgepodge of stalkers, corpses and psychics, all punctuated by hot flashes and Southern sass.
Author: Marjorie Housepian Dobkin
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 284
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Book Description
On one level Smyrna 1922 is a modern Greek tragedy replete with the elements of irony and horror. The Greeks, one of the victorious Allied powers during World War 1, were betrayed by their allies and their army driven into the sea at Smyrna by the forces of Mustapha Kemal, an insurgent leader to whom his former enemies had given considerable covert help. There followed an enactment of the week of orgy after the fall of Constantinople in 1453; pillage, rape and massacre culminating, in this instance, in the spectacular destruction by fire of Smyrna (now Izmir), considered an infidel city by the Turks because of its predominantly Greek character and population. Dobkin's study is a definitive work concerning a debacle deliberately soft pedalled and almost expunged from the memory of modern day man in the words of Henry Miller in The Colossus of Maroussi.
