The Gendarme

By Mark T. Mustian
(Berkley Trade, Paperback, 9780425242964, 336pp.)

Publication Date: September 6, 2011

Other Editions of This Title: Google eBook, Hardcover, Paperback, Paperback

Categories: Historical - General, Literary

Selected by Indie Booksellers for the September 2010 Indie Next List

“Injured in WWI, Emmet Conn suffered amnesia as a result of a head wound. Now, at 92, a brain tumor causes long-lost memories to return, as Emmet recalls an earlier life as a Turkish gendarme leading a group of Armenian refugees to the border. The brutality and despair, filth and degradation these people must endure on the forced march mean little to him until he falls in love with Araxie, one of the Armenian refugees, and he begins to perceive his actions and his attitude through her eyes. Mesmerizing, beautiful, and heart-breaking.”

-- Jennie Turner-Collins, Joseph-Beth Booksellers, Cincinnati, OH

Description

To most people, Emmett Conn is a confused old World War I veteran, fading in and out of senility. But in his mind, Emmett is haunted by events he'd long forgotten. In his dreams, he's a gendarme, a soldier marching Armenians out of Turkey. He commits unspeakable acts. Yet he feels compelled to spare one remarkable woman: Araxie, the girl with the piercing eyes-one green, one blue.

As the past and present bleed together in The Gendarme, Emmett Conn sets out on one final journey to find Araxie and beg forgiveness, before it's too late. With uncompromising vision and boundless compassion, Mark Mustian has written a transcendent meditation on the power of memory-and the dangers of forgetting who we are and have been.

About the Author

Mark T. Mustian is an author, attorney, and city commissioner. He lives in Tallahassee, Florida.

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