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Panorama.am presents the second part of the interview with Chris Bohjalian – New York Times Best Selling author. He is the author of 18 books, among which famous bestseller The Sandcastle Girls – historical novel about a love story during the time of the Armenian Genocide. His work has been translated into over 30 languages and three times become movies. 

You can read the first part of the interview is here 

- Mr. Bohjalian, how did you start writing? How did you become a writer?

- Rilke talks about the desire to write – when you wake up at 3.00 in the morning and you must write, you write. I’ve been writing since I was a very little boy, I collected 250 rejection slips before I sold one single work, but I never stopped because I loved what I was doing – I love writing! First I was writing short stories but then I understood that instead of short stories I should write novels because that’s what I love most – I’ve always loved big novels like Anna Karenina or the Forty Days of Musa Dagh. I sold my first novel very quickly, and that was the start of my career as a writer.

- Many people in the United States have learned about the Armenian Genocide through your book The Sandcastle Girls. What feedback did you receive from the readers and how do you feel about it? 

- The sad reality about the North America is that (certainly this was the case in 1990s when I was writing the novel) most people know almost nothing about the Armenian Genocide. Just yesterday I got a usual Facebook post from a reader, saying, “I just learned about the Armenian Genocide from your book”. I get one of those every day, and it is important for me. I am also trying to make sure that people know the history of the Genocide when I teach. It is important, because we persevered, and then in Karabakh against all odds we won, and we are more than that!

I was also thrilled with the reaction of our community and the way they embraced the novel, and I was overjoyed by the way my foreign readers embraced the novel and the way my readers of Swedish, Irish or other descent in Indiana or Texas fell in love with the characters of my story. The book has now been published at least in 15 countries; I love all the covers.

- Sandcastle Girls answers the question of why it is important to talk about the Armenian Genocide today, after 100 years, showing that it is not only in the past but that it has repercussions in present. Is there anything you would like to add to this?

- One of the messages of my book is that because of the Genocide we are a Diaspora nation, with the fact that 70% of us live outside of our homeland. The conflict in Karabakh, in so many ways, is not just a legacy of the Soviet Union; it is the legacy of Genocide. It is our reclamation and our retention of our homeland, that we will not be ethnically cleansed like we were in Van, Bitlis and other parts of our homeland and we are keeping it, and that is the present. There are also so many parallels between the Armenian genocide and the genocides in Rwanda, Bosnia and other places. I do not believe that Turkey would be in the precarious place it is today in terms of democracy or in terms of the safety of the Kurdish minority if the foreign powers in 1918 had made it clear that this was a crime against humanity and if they had not emboldened Ataturk and the new Turkish regime to sweep under the rug the death of 1.5 Armenians, if they hadn’t said ‘well it is in the past, now build your democracy’. Also up till today Turkey stands next to Azerbaijan in the Karabakh conflict, while the Azeris don’t hide their intention to ethnically cleanse the Armenians from the region.

- What was the reaction of the Turks to your book? Has it been published in Turkey?

- When the book got high rankings and good reviews in reputable magazines in the US the Turks were very active in condemning it and writing negative comments about it – I can say that it was a very coordinated effort. But I have also met liberal Turks who want their country to acknowledge the crimes of the Ottoman Empire and who stand by the Armenians – they are a very small, but intelligent minority now in Turkey. My Turkish publisher didn’t publish it but a small Armenian publisher is going to publish the book in Istanbul this winter – this is an act of courage.

- When is the movie based on The Sandcastle Girls going to come out?

- The movie is now in the initial stage – it is being cast. Filmmaker Eric Nazarian has written the script for the Sandcastle Girls, he is directing and essentially producing it. He has put his heart and soul into making The Sandcastle Girls into a movie. I must celebrate him – he is one of the most talented and passionate people I have ever met, and his script is awesome!  In the perfect world he would be filming it early in 2017.

- You have published 18 books by now. Are you working on the 19th one?

- Yes, my 19th novel The Sleepwalker comes out in January 2017.

Interview by Nvard Chalikyan
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Chris Bohjalian has received ANCA Arts and Letters Award for The Sandcastle Girls, as well as the Saint Mesrob Mashdots Medal.