Who She Left Behind, Excerpt from Victoria Atamian Waterman

“Who She Left Behind” is a captivating historical fiction novel that spans generations and delves into the emotional lives of its characters. Set in various time periods, from the declining days of the Ottoman Empire in Turkey in 1915 to the Armenian neighborhoods of Rhode Island and Massachusetts in the 1990s, the novel completely immerses its reader in a lesser-known era and the untold stories of the brave and resilient women who became the pillars of reconstructed communities after the Armenian Genocide.

It is a story of survival, motherhood, love, and redemption based on the recounted stories from the author’s own family history. The narrative is framed by a mysterious discovery made almost six decades later of a pair of Armenian dolls left at a gravesite.

Excerpt

“Where?” Her whisper struck the silence like gunfire; Victoria winced, searching the ground near the tree for a good spot.

“Shush. There.”

Neither girl had experience digging holes in hard-packed, root addled soil. The morning’s soft rain hadn’t softened the soil much. For what seemed like hours, they traded the spade until the hole was nearly big enough for their bundle.

Victoria’s stomach clenched when she pushed the bundle into the misshapen hole. The dolls didn’t know what was happening, but she couldn’t bear to think of their unseeing eyes, like dead girls in a grave. Yegsabet’s eyes were huge and wet with unshed tears.

Victoria took the spade. “Tell Nuri to be a good girl, and we’ll be back when she wakes up.”

The mound of disturbed soil was obvious when they were done.

“Let’s find some rocks and cover it up.”

The rocks didn’t make a lot of difference; the disturbed ground was obvious, but they were out of time. The light was shifting.

Sweating and chilled, they slipped through the house, stashing their dirty clothes under the bed and washing hastily. Mayrig would be furious with them for sneaking out if she found out.

Universal links:

Hardcover: https://geni.us/ze4W9eQ
Ebook: https://geni.us/XzSFs3

Other links:

Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Left-Behind-Victoria-Atamian-Waterman-ebook/dp/B0CHJK7YQX
Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/Left-Behind-Victoria-Atamian-Waterman-ebook/dp/B0CHJK7YQX
Amazon CA: https://www.amazon.ca/Left-Behind-Victoria-Atamian-Waterman-ebook/dp/B0CHJK7YQX
Amazon AU: https://www.amazon.com.au/Left-Behind-Victoria-Atamian-Waterman-ebook/dp/B0CHJK7YQX
Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/books/1144042403?ean=9781962465021
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/who-she-left-behind Historium Press: https://www.thehistoricalfictioncompany.com/victoria-atamian-waterman

Meet Victoria Atamian Waterman

Victoria Atamian Waterman is an Armenian American storyteller and speaker who draws inspiration from the quirky multigenerational, multilingual home in which she was raised with her grandparents, survivors of the Armenian Genocide.

Her empowerment of today’s women and girls makes her voice ideal for telling the little-known stories of yesterday’s women leaders. Her TED Talk, “Today’s Girls are Tomorrow’s Leaders” has been seen by thousands of viewers. When she is not writing and speaking, she is reading, puzzle-making and volunteering.

Victoria lives in Rhode Island and is enjoying this next chapter of life with her husband, children, and grandchildren. “Who She Left Behind” is her first novel.