MY ARMENIAN FRIEND

Steve Hendrickson's storytelling style is fittingly restrained as he narrates this coming-of-age story set in Siberia. The 13-year-old protagonist, who lives in an orphanage, befriends an enigmatic Armenian teen, Vardan, who is sickly and wise. He suffers from an illness aptly called "the Armenian Disease." He and others are camped by a Siberian prison awaiting their compatriot's trial. The story is set in the 1960s, after the earlier Armenian genocide, and the iron hand of Soviet rule pervades the novel. Makine emigrated from Russia in the 1980s and writes in French. His works have won the highest French literary awards. This finely narrated novel, which sounds almost like a fable, is brief and compelling. A.D.M. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine [Published: MAY 2024]