As the Poppies Bloomed

As the Poppies Bloomed by Maral Boyadjian   282 pages

Anyone who is familiar with my musings on the books I have read knows that I often pick up a book based on its title and/or its dust jacket.  As the Poppies Bloomed is one such book. Based on the title, and to some degree the cover art, I thought I was going to be reading a book that took place in Germany or France during World War I.  The story takes place on the eve of the Great War but takes place in the Ottoman Empire. I was somewhat familiar with the Armenian Genocide from what I’ve learned by following author Chris Bohjalian’s career and reading his wonderful novels.

It’s 1913, somewhere in the Ottoman Empire that I couldn’t place. The landscape reminded me of the Middle East. It’s the story of a village, in particular one young girl, Anno.

Readers will learn about the Armenia customs, especially in regard to male-female relationships and marriage. I found it quite interesting and not unlike other cultures’ beliefs at the near-beginning of the 20^th century.

I had a hard time getting into the story, mainly because I was unfamiliar with how to pronounce the characters’ names and locations but also because many names began with the same letter and I couldn’t keep them straight. I kept having to flip back and make sure I know who each character was in relation to Anno.

Another flaw was not the inevitable ending. The story could only end one way to have an authentic feel, but the Epilogue takes place in 1976. It made me shake my head in disbelief.

Still there were times I was totally captivated by Anno and her village’s story. I even gasped a few times at the surprises that author Boyadjian provided that kept me reading. It took me almost two weeks to read this novel and that, plus the issues listed above forces me to give As the Poppies Bloomed gets 3 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.