Join us at Books on the Square on Monday, September 28th at 6:00 p.m. for a reading and book signing with Sarah Ignatius, author of The Kaleidoscope of Destiny, in conversation with Victoria Atamian Waterman.

The Kaleidoscope of Destiny by Sarah Ignatius

The year is 1915. War rages in Europe while Armenians in the Ottoman Empire find themselves unfairly blamed for a major military defeat. Cooped up at home, fourteen-year-old Arakel tries to ignore rumors of arrests and beatings of Armenians by focusing on the journey he’ll take with his two best friends, one Turkish and the other Armenian, on the Silk Road to China in two years, certain war will be over by then.

His life is torn apart when Turkish officials arrest almost all of the Armenian men in his town, including his father and older brother, and order nearly all of the remaining Armenians into exile in the desert amidst rumors of massacres. Tormented by armed guards, Arakel doesn’t grasp what’s happening until they strip his family of food, water, and their meager possessions and force them across the Euphrates River, where bloated corpses float by. He has crossed into the land of the dead. In a desperate struggle to survive, Arakel must rely on people of different faiths and backgrounds-Bedouins, Kurds, Arab camel drivers, Turks, Germans, even a wandering dervish-people he considers enemies-but how can he trust them?

In a barbaric world, he confronts what lies deep within the human heart. With an elegance reaffirming our collective humanity, The Kaleidoscope of Destiny reveals the courage, hope, and ingenuity to survive the darkest of times during an often-overlooked part of history and will resonate in today’s challenges.

Before publishing her debut novel, The Kaleidoscope of Destiny, Sarah Ignatius worked for many years as a human rights lawyer representing people seeking political asylum after fleeing from persecution throughout the world and as a nonprofit executive director. She is half-Armenian, born in Massachusetts, and has also called California, Washington, D.C., Montana, and Washington state home. Sarah has received recognition from the New England Society of Children’s Books Writers & Illustrators, the National League of American Pen Women, and Glimmer Train. She was also selected as a Somerville Arts Council Literature Artist Fellow. She earned her B.A. from Stanford University and her law degree from Georgetown University Law Center. She lives in Massachusetts with her family.