Peter Balakian

Peter Balakian is the author of the book and the character through whom the book is experienced. Peter was an American growing up in suburbia New Jersey in the 1960s when he first recalls stories of his grandmother and her past. Throughout his childhood, Peter understands that his family is part American and part Armenian, but does not know what being Armenian truly means. He knows his mother and her sisters, as well as her mother, have a passion for food and decorating, and a feeling of being different, but he does not know why. It is not until Peter is in college that he begins to seek out his heritage and learns of his family's demise during the Armenian genocide of 1915. Through the rest of the novel, readers follow Peter as he looks for his roots and begins to understand his past, and the horrible past...