Alice Ketabgian and Dr. Tamara Ketabgian discuss their historical novel The Mayor of Inebolu. The novel explores complex questions surrounding intermarriage, religious tolerance, wartime trauma, and the historical legacy of Armenian and Turkish relations, asking what does it mean to remember the pain of the past while still looking toward the future?
When Yevkine returns to Istanbul, forty years after her departure as a small child, she faces the chance of a lifetime. There, she meets her cousin and begins to uncover the dark family secrets that still remain within her ancestors' homeland. Unfolding amid laughter and tears, this moving historical novel traces the path of the Balyan family during the deportation of 1915 and beyond, as they build new lives for themselves. Their story begins in a picturesque small town near the southern coast of the Black Sea, continues through Istanbul's ancient quarters, to Marseille and Saint-Etienne, and eventually ends on the shores of New Jersey. Spanning both World Wars and the Spanish Civil War, The Mayor of Inebolu explores complex questions surrounding intermarriage, religious tolerance, wartime trauma, and the historical legacy of Armenian and Turkish relations. Along the way, we encounter love stories, tragedies and unexpected acts of kindness. Throughout, the novel asks: what does it mean to remember the pain of the past while still looking toward the future?