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Overview
When the Armenians of Turkey are marched into the desert to die in 1915, Mariam is rescued by her Turkish friend Rustem, and lives with mixed acceptance as a guest in his father's harem. Kevork is shot and left for dead in a mass grave in the desert, but is rescued by nomadic Arabs and nurtured back to health.
Both teens must choose between the security of an adopted home or the risk of death in search of family.
A sequel to the highly successful The Hunger, Nobody's Child is a stirring and engaging account of one of the twentieth century's most significant events.
Even though Mariam, her siblings, and their friend Kevork become orphans after the 1909 massacre of Armenians in Turkey's Adana Province, their sustaining hope, as six years later in 1915 they face "deportation," is to be reunited with the remaining members of their family.
Editorials
From the Publisher
"Marsha Skrypuch includes references to the three major massacres against Armenians: first, Adana in 1909, then the genocide in 1915; then, she takes us back to the Hamidian massacres in 1896... In this way, the novel presents the three great catastrophes that befell Armenians in a twenty-year period and provides an important background and context to the psychology of the Armenian characters....The characterizations are strong. We care for the children and admire their strength. They and their parents are victims, yet the children refuse to give in. They always accept the struggle to survive in the hope of being reunited. They have chances for a safer life but refuse to give up their Armenian identity for it.
...We must thank Marsha Skrypuch for using her talents once again to tell a story from our past that will help explain to younger generations an unfortunate part of our history. At the same time, the characters in the novel exhibit the strength and resolve of Armenians to survive. I urge you to read Marsha Skrypuch's compelling novel, Nobody's Child."
Dr. Lorne Shirinian, author of The Armenian Genocide: Resisting the Inertia of Indifference, and Head of Department, Department of English, Royal Military College of Canada
Children's Literature
It is 1909 and Mariam, Marta, and Onnig are orphaned when their parents are killed during the Adana massacre. All of the Armenians they were traveling with have been killed. The children hope that their relatives in Marash are still alive, but the only way to find out is to go there. With their young friend Kevork and his aunt, they manage to make the difficult journey. They find that the situation in Marash is only marginally better for Armenian people. Still, they are able to eke out a relatively peaceful existence for six growing-up years. Then the children's lives are shattered once more as they face renewed violence. Will they ever be reunited? Will they even survive? In this story, Skrypuch revisits and expands those characters and situations of the Armenian Genocide which were part of her earlier novel, The Hunger. The brutality of that appalling event is made real through the circumstances of these engaging characters. Readers are sure to be both enlightened and outraged as they are drawn into the situation of this strong-willed family. 2003, Boardwalk/Dundurn, Ages 13 up.—Heidi Hauser Green