BLOODVINE: A Novel

By Aris Janigian

Bloodvine is the tale of one man's struggle with the strange and seemingly impenetrable secrets that plague and intrigue every family. Reconstructing the stories of his father and estranged uncle, a son--two generations removed from the Armenian genocide--comes to comprehend the history of a people. ''Among Armenian families,'' he learns, ''the connections between devotion and animosity are as complicated as events in a dream.'' Set on a family farm in California in the 1950s, Bloodvine is a compelling novel of intense relationships, of love, joy, hate, and madness, of people unraveling as they struggle with the unpredictability of soil, weather, and fate. Told with an authentic and unflinching sense of place, this story of transgenerational trauma and healing resonates with the power of humanity's most ancient conflicts.

Heyday Books (2003)