Affinity with Night Skies: Astra Sabondjian's Story
London : Gomidas Institute, 2022,
206 pp., map,
ISBN 978-1-909382-71-8, pb.,
UK£20.00 / US$24.00
To order please contact books@gomidas.org
Astra Sabondjian was born into culture and privilege in late 19th Century Ottoman or Western Armenia. Her father, a lawyer, fought hard for the underdog, while her uncles made jewellery for the Russian Tsar. Memories to last a lifetime. From a young age fate forced a lifelong nomadic destiny - across four counties, over fifty years. Set against a recurring backdrop of genocide and war, Astra, spirited, radical, idealistic, marries Setrag, a well-known newspaper editor and political activist. Together they strive for social justice, but in an empire seething with brutality, mortal dangers are never far away. Again and again fearless, strategic, talented, she refuses to be a victim. On a mission to protect the people she loves, Astra must find a way.
"Page after page I found myself in front of a unique and fascinating woman capable of keeping her family close in ever increasing adversities, restarting again and again from nothing, after every whirlwind adventure, continually reinventing and transforming herself, each time rising like a phoenix from her own ashes.”
–Antonia Arslan, 2015.