First published 2012
Elizabeth Endicott arrives in Aleppo in 1915 with her Mount Holyoke diploma and basic nursing training. She volunteers with the Boston-based Friends of Armenia to deliver food and medical aid to Armenian genocide refugees. Elizabeth befriends Armen, a young Armenian engineer who lost his wife and infant daughter. When Armen travels to Egypt to join the British army, he writes letters to Elizabeth and realizes he loves this wealthy American woman so different from his deceased wife. Decades later, novelist Laura Petrosian lives in suburban New York, never thinking much about her Armenian roots despite her grandparents' ornate Pelham home nicknamed "The Ottoman Annex." When a friend spots Laura's grandmother in a Boston museum newspaper photo, Laura begins exploring her family history. She uncovers a buried secret that connects her to Elizabeth and Armen's wartime love story across generations.
Genres: literary-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, 21st-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family
Setting: Aleppo, Egypt, Pelham, Boston, New York
Period: 1915, Decades Later
299 pages · Hardcover · Doubleday
Content warnings: war