Book Review: Orhan´s Inheritance by Aline Ohanesian

´Once there was and it was not...´

´Places and things stay with us, and sometimes we stay with them...´

When Orhan´s grandfather left their house to an unknown woman living in California, he is sent to convince her to give up her rights. A photographer whose political opinions were abandoned after being arrested and having pushed into partial exile out of Turkey, Orhan will have to face the past his grandfather never shared with, but also well hidden family histories.

In writing Orhan´s Inheritance Aline Ohanesian was inspired by her own grandmother stories of the tragedy of the 1,5 million Armenians murdered by official order of the Ottoman Empire. The Armenian genocide commemorated today, the 24th of April, never acknowledged by Turkey, was finally declared as such today by the Biden administration, the first American president to openly recognize it, a political gesture of acknowledgement of a documented historical fact. The trauma of the genocide is part of the Armenian collective and individual history. I remember how back in the old country, we always felt safe and at ease in the company of the children of the many Armenian friends of my parents - all refugiated there after the genocide - because we both shared the silences of our historical curse. In their company, we felt normal in our sad anormality and overwhelming weight of memory.

Orhan´s Inheritance is far from being an apologetic book and through the back and forth of historical timelines it creates an emotional story, of a forbidden love and individuals for whom race and religion are less important than saving a human life endangered by political blindness and cruelty. What unites the characters in this book is the power of words and the trauma that words can further challenge. One of my favorite idea of the book was to connect between the power of speech, or rather the refuse to use it, with the traumatic experiences. Indeed, witnessing overwhelmingly dramatic events can supress temporarily or permanently the capacity of organising that experience into words. 

Aline Ohanesian created an inspiring story with a few - unfortunatelly not all of them are created complex - powerful characters. In this case, the story is stronger than its separate parts and this is what how the book will be remembered, by the uniqueness of the narrative.

For me, this book was also a gentle reminder that I don´t have to wait for another year until I posting a blog on Armenian literature related topics. Here is a short introduction to a couple of Armenian women writers in English translation. 

I had access to the book in audiobook format, narrated by the distinct voice of Assaf Cohen, actor in movies like Fauda and When Heroes Fly. 

Rating: 4 stars