Ann Phelan Phelan
asked
Nancy Kricorian:
Nancy, I was astounded to read the name of your book. My grandmother was Zabelle, born in Turkey, a survivor or the Armenian Genocide. She immigrated to Worcester at 14 and moved to Watertown. My grandfather, a much older man bought her from an orphanage and 9 months later, my mother was born, likely conceived on the boat. Is your story based on a real person?
Nancy Kricorian
Dear Ann,
Thanks for the note. I'm glad that you found resonances from your own family's experience in the novel. Zabelle Chahasbanian is a fictional character, but her story is a composite of my own grandmother's experience blended with episodes from the lives of her friends and women in our church, along with a good dose of novelistic invention. The narrative of the Deportations in "The Tin Cup" is based closely on stories my grandmother and her friend Alice Kharibian told me. Alice was the model for the Arsinee character.
Best,
Nancy
Thanks for the note. I'm glad that you found resonances from your own family's experience in the novel. Zabelle Chahasbanian is a fictional character, but her story is a composite of my own grandmother's experience blended with episodes from the lives of her friends and women in our church, along with a good dose of novelistic invention. The narrative of the Deportations in "The Tin Cup" is based closely on stories my grandmother and her friend Alice Kharibian told me. Alice was the model for the Arsinee character.
Best,
Nancy
More Answered Questions
Henry Pelifian
asked
Nancy Kricorian:
Our grandparents were living in Paris during WWII. Their name was Attanasian and did not survive the war. They had two sons, Garbis and Hrant who were tailors. Our mother married our father in Paris in 1930/31 and emigrated to America at that time. When she received word after or during the war that her parents and brothers died she never fully covered. How can we find out how they and their sons died?
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