Remnants: The Way of the Womb, Book 1 (3rd Edition)

"Remnants is an inheritance. It has been described in turns as the novel of the Catastrophe, as a testimony, even as a myth. But above all, its author, Hagop Oshagan (1883-1948), intended it as a bequest. Set in the region of Ottoman Nicaea (Izmit) during the late 19th century, it recounts an epic family tragedy precipitated by sexual transgressions, crimes, and betrayals. Oshagan claimed its characters were living people, though subjected to embellishment. Here, an entire world, now otherwise lost to memory, comes to life with unprecedented intimacy as it recounts the fate of the once prominent Nalbandian family. Confronting the end of their lineage, the enterprising women of the last remaining Nalbandians take creative and precarious measures to prolong their legacy. Oshagan unravels the devastating outcomes with engrossing depth and detail. G. M. Goshgarian’s radiant translation marks a veritable feat, as it delivers Oshagan’s notoriously terse Western Armenian to a contemporary Anglophone readership.

— Nanor Kebranian, Zabel Yessayan on the Threshold: Key Texts on Armenians and Turks as Ottoman Subjects (London: Gomidas Institute, 2023)