UPDATE: February 8, 2013: Republished with the new title above
by Kay Mouradian
2005, Taderon Press, London
Softcover, 208 pp., $20.00
Flora Munushian was a 14-year-old Armenian girl attending an American school in Hadjin, Turkey in 1915 when a deportation order forced her entire community on a death march to Der Zor. Her father managed to stow his daughters in Aleppo, where she hid for the duration of WWI. She never saw her parents or her brothers again. At the age of 18, she sailed to the U.S. to marry an Armenian man she’d never met.
My Mother’s Voice tells of Flora’s struggles from 1914-1918. Flora Munushian told her daughter Kay Mouradian “…in no uncertain terms that I was going to write a book about her life.” Presenting the story of her mother’s teenage years as a novel was an excellent decision.
Mouradian’s narrative is well-paced and action-packed, with the right amount of carefully researched details. Told from her mother’s point of view, the story highlights Flora’s drive to get an education, her youthful idealism and her inner strength. The book is a great read for both young readers and adults, with a positive message and story arc.
Featured this week on Asbarez.com, My Mother’s Voice is a historical documentary version of the book Mouradian produced with award-winning filmmaker Mark Friedman. It debuts October 21, 2012 at the Pomegranate Film Festival in Toronto.
Your interested readers may want to know that my film, MY MOTHER’S VOICE, was awarded HONORABLE MENTION at the Pomegranate Film Festival in Toronto. The film crew created and posted a trailer on YouTube and Facebook.
Congratulations! I look forward to another screening of the film here in Southern California.