Mark Mustian - THE GENDARME | Octavia Books | New Orleans, Louisiana

Start: 09/15/2010 6:00 pm

Mustian has written an extraordinary novel dealing with some of the most difficult issues of the twentieth century, issues that profoundly threaten this new century as well. This is a harrowing and truly important novel by a splendid American writer.”

—Robert Olen Butler, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain

THE GENDARME: A Novel by Mark Mustian Please join us for a special evening with novelist Mark Mustian as he reads from and signs his new novel, THE GENDARME. To those around him, Emmet Conn is a 92 year old man on the verge of senility. A World War I veteran, he’s been affected by memory loss since being injured in the war. Now, at the end of his life, he’s beset by visions—frightening and realistic, he’s convinced they are memories of events he and others have denied or purposely forgotten.

In Emmett’s dreams he’s a gendarme, escorting Armenian women and children from Turkey. A young woman among them, Araxie, captivates and enthralls him. She becomes the love of his life. But then the trek ends, the war separates them. He is injured. Seven decades later, as his grasp on the boundaries between past and present begin to break down, he sets out on a final journey, to find Araxie, and beg her forgiveness.

Alternating between Turkey at the dawn of the 20^th century and America in the 1990s, The Gendarme shows how racism creates divisions where none truly exist, how love can transcend nationalities and politics, and how the human spirit fights to survive in the face of hopelessness. It is a transcendent novel.

"Extraordinary, unforgettable debut"
Click here to read David Madden's review from BookPage