海角大神

'Orhan's Inheritance' cleverly intertwines first love, ancient betrayal, secrets, and war crimes

A debut novel links Turkish and Armenian families as it balances mistakes made with redemption earned.

At age 8, Aline Ohanesian鈥檚 great-grandmother interrupted her seventh viewing of 鈥淭he Sound of Music鈥� with a promise: 鈥淚 have a story, too.鈥� That was the first and last time Ohanesian heard about during the Armenian genocide 鈥� the still-contested claim that between 1 million and 1.5 million ethnic Armenians were annihilated by the Ottoman government in what is now Turkey. Now, more than a quarter century later, Nene鈥檚 escape comes to life once again in Orhan鈥檚 Inheritance, Ohanesian鈥檚 irresistible debut novel about first love, ancient betrayal, secrets within secrets, missing parents, war crimes, and ambiguous morality.

As the book opens, 93-year-old Turkish patriarch Kemal T眉rko臒lu is found dead, 鈥渟teeping in an indigo dye two shades darker than the summer sky.鈥� His grandson, Orhan, rushes from Istanbul to Karod, a remote village in the interior of Turkey, for the reading of the will. Orhan has long been estranged from his father, Mustafa; only Auntie Fatma welcomes him, albeit silently.

Kemal鈥檚 will splinters the family further 鈥� contrary to Turkish inheritance law, Kemal has bypassed his son Mustafa and left the family textile business to Orhan. The family home, however, is bequeathed to a Ms. Seda Melkonian 鈥� a woman living in Los Angeles utterly unknown to the family. Orhan is immediately dispatched to California to reclaim the family estate. Fatma warns him to be careful: 鈥淵ou know what the trees said when the axe came to the forest?... The handle is one of us.鈥� Orhan asks, 鈥淎m I the tree or the axe?,鈥� but Fatma can only reply, 鈥淲ho knows?鈥�

Orhan finds Seda, an octogenarian, living quietly in the Ararat Home for the Aging among fellow Armenians. Her devoted activist/historian niece Ani visits once a week. She鈥檚 in the midst of chronicling the residents鈥� stories, and yet Seda has been the least forthcoming about her past. When Orhan appears, Seda is immediately willing to sign the legal papers he presents, if only to have him gone. But Orhan returns again and again, determined to learn her story. And he does ... but at what cost?

Presented in two narratives set generations apart 鈥� 1990 when Kemal dies and 1915 when the Armenian genocide begins 鈥� Ohanesian intertwines the histories of two families made enemies by political, religious, and ethnic borders. She inserts an impossible love story that haunts both sides. In this multigenerational page turner of an epic saga, Ohanesian bears witness to atrocities even as her characters鈥� descendants work toward redemption. Lest you think too soon that you鈥檝e figured things out, Ohanesian has twists and turns to surprise. In young Orhan鈥檚 own experiences of exile and return, she reminds us 鈥� literally 鈥� that life and history are never captured in black and white.

鈥淥rhan鈥檚 Inheritance鈥� isn鈥檛 a perfect novel. The father/son estrangements are insufficiently developed, the stories of escape are too long, and the repeated foreshadowing is more cloying than illuminating. Yet all that aside, 鈥淚nheritance鈥� gracefully redeems itself with details of history almost lost, and the tenacious, crucial attempts at reclamation and preservation. 鈥淎ll of life ... is a story within a story,鈥� Orhan muses. 鈥淸H]ow we choose to listen and which words we choose to speak makes all the difference.鈥�
听

Terry Hong writes , a book review blog for the