This was an interesting, fast-paced read that starts with the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11th, and flashes back to Vera's family's experiences with the civil war in Lebanon. This event is what led them to move to the U.S, and the fear for her own children is reflected in the ways the adults reacted to the violence in Beirut.

I really empathized with the characters, and found the last story that the grandmother told to be especially touching. This was a moving story. I recommend it for book clubs and libraries.

Book review: 4/5 ⭐️
Genre: fiction
Themes: Armenian diaspora, inherited trauma, displacement, family
📖 Read if you like: What Strange Paradise, The Boat People, Transcendent Kingdom

This is an emotional tale of a Beirut Armenian family before, during and after the Lebanese Civil War. It has an almost visceral quality of writing. My body and mind responded to the dangers and the carried trauma inherited through intergenerational displacement and war. It was like a little stone that settled into my soul, a vice that squeezed now and again, leavened by the joys of a child and first love. It manages to paint the Armenian diaspora with both a raw and tactile form, while also creating the ethereal dreamlike state of folk stories.

At its heart it is the tale of one family that could be many. It starts in NYC just after the 9/11 attacks. One horrific landscape that triggers another buried to memory. A childhood in Lebanon that rapidly turns from idyllic to one of bomb shelters and checkpoints, to senseless murders and bias. A civil war that robbed many families a place to call home, especially those that had already lost one in the mountains of Hadjin. A grandmother’s story of being forced to leave her home in a march of orphans. It is a heavy a burden that must be carried by those who survived.

The Serinossians are an ordinary family in that they have squabbles, boisterous family dinners and sibling rivalries. They also share lived experiences they do not wish to speak of. Vera is the eldest child and only daughter of this family and this is her story, and the story of her people. It is both sweet and heartbreaking. A need for therapy and cathartic in the storytelling itself. For such a heavy topic, the narrative manages to balance the dark with the sweetness of childhood. The bombs flying overhead with the poetic joy of friendship and family.

This was eye opening for I knew little about the history of the Armenian displacement, but more than that I found it a beautiful piece of storytelling on how trauma is created, carried and inherited. Yet, that does not stop a beautiful life from blooming in the ravages of war. Opposing elements combine to make this sweet and a tear jerker.

Thank you to NetGalley and Red Hen Press for an advanced copy of this book.

Thank you to Red Hen Press and to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this title!

It’s truly difficult to know where to start this review. We’re given two deeply unique viewpoints into Vera’s life, firstly when we see how she struggles in a post 9/11 world, and then earlier in her life when we learn why her struggles run so deep. Kricorian’s lyrical prose kept me engaged, enthralled, and ran my heart to ruin throughout Vera’s story. My heart ached and still aches for Vera in all phases of her life - simple anxieties about a crush and keeping a cousin’s secrets, to knowing how to take care of both yourself and your family in a world you no longer understand.

The family ties in this book rang especially poignant to me and I loved the determination to stay together and survive that echoed through generations. Vera will stay with me in my heart, and I am very grateful to Nancy Kricorian for opening my eyes to a story and a struggle I previously knew nothing about.

Thank you to NetGalley for this Advence Reader’s copy.

This book was very lyrical and i enjoyed learning a little bit about Armenia and its history .
This books navigate between the present and the past of Vera’s life. It explained, how it was to live your childhood with war and what repercussions it has on you even later in life. It explains how the trauma of the war is never really healed and how, even the smallest thing, can make you feel unsafe all over again.
I just wish, i could have read more about Vera in the US, to know how she would have handle this new challenge in her life.

Thank you Red Hen Press and NetGalley for this Advanced Reader's Copy. This was a quick, mostly straightforward read with themes of war's effects over generations.

I like the details on main character Vera's anxiety, both around 9/11 as an adult and in Beirut as a pre-teen. I got the impression she is an empath and feels misunderstood, especially when her mom asks things like "Why do you always have to dream up the worst possible thing?" This book also delves into how people with different personalities have very different reactions to war occurring around them. Vera's mom might not understand her brand of anxiety, but she realizes the danger and wants the family to flee to the U.S. Vera's brother opines that leaving is irresponsible and unpatriotic. And Vera's grandmother, who was forced out of her home in Hadjin as a young girl, refuses to leave another beloved home. By contrast, another woman relative puts a great deal of effort into her appearance, saying, "Wearing makeup helps a woman feel a little less desperate." It impressed upon me that there's often not a "right" way to react to national tragedy, and adult Vera doesn't know how after 9/11.

While I enjoyed this, I felt the plot was slightly disconnected. I don't think it ever states in the text that the subject is the Lebanese Civil War, that was something I picked up from context clues and Google. We get a synopsis of the grandma's family tragedies from fleeing Hadjin, but no background on that conflict at all. I was also waiting for more on how Vera's life goes after 9/11. Also, some smaller details didn't really fit (like as a kid, Vera's youngest brother Raffi is speaking full, coherent sentences, but at the end of the book is just learning how to walk, which I thought kids do around age one). Overall, this is still worth a read and encouraged me to educate myself on the conflicts in Lebanon and Hadjin.

“and there had been thousands upon thousands of them, without homes, without parents, some too young to remember their own names. and these were the lucky ones, the ones who had survived. land of armenians, land of orphans.”

war is tedious. it destroys all in its path, without a care for people or buildings, animals or plants, but it is tedious. it builds an eerie lull, a monotony of life that is interrupted by a sudden blast. war happens around you, and yet you must still go to work or go to school, you still share a drink with your friends on a balcony, you still bicker with your siblings and you still have to plan for the future, until the next blast makes that future feel uncertain yet again.

kricorian’s prose is emotional and deeply vivid. in her author notes and acknowledgments she spoke of visiting lebanon and seeing the streets for herself, and it certainly is reflected in the descriptions of the buildings, the bustle of people, the heat of the sun. vera is such a beautiful protagonist, a girl whose ptsd is elevated by what appears to be anxiety, and a war that haunts her half the world away. she was so deeply, deeply empathetic for all life, you couldn’t help but cherish every page with her. the family dynamic was lively, each relationship fleshed out so well in such a short span of pages.

“the burning heart of the world” is really a love letter to both lebanon and armenians who had to flee their homes and carve out a new space for themselves. it’s not directly about the armenian genocide, but it lingers, following the family for generations, all the way to new york nearly a hundred years later. war is monotonous, and slow, and destructive, and it never really leaves you behind.

Книга Нэнси Крикориан "Пылающее сердце мира" оставила у меня глубокое впечатление и вызвала множество эмоций. это произведение не просто роман, а настоящая эпопея, погружающая читателя в сложный и многогранный мир, где переплетаются судьбы людей, исторические события и культурные традиции.
С первых страниц я был захвачен яркими описаниями и живыми персонажами. Крикориан мастерски создает атмосферу, в которой читатель может почувствовать себя частью происходящего. Каждая деталь, будь то описание природы, быта или внутреннего мира героев, пронизана вниманием к нюансам и глубиной чувств. Я ощутил, как будто сам оказался в тех местах, о которых рассказывает автор, и переживал вместе с героями их радости и горести.

Особенно впечатлила тема идентичности и поиска своего места в мире.
Главные герои сталкиваются с трудными выборами, которые заставляют их переосмысливать свои ценности и приоритеты.
это заставило меня задуматься о собственных жизненных путях и о том, как важно оставаться верным себе, несмотря на внешние обстоятельства.

Крикориан также затрагивает важные социальные и политические вопросы, что делает книгу не только увлекательной, но и познавательной. Я была поражена тем, как автор умело вплетает в сюжет исторические факты, делая их частью личных историй героев.
Стиль Нэнси Крикориан завораживает она использует поэтичные метафоры и яркие образы, что делает чтение настоящим наслаждением.я не могла оторваться от книги,под конц пришлось растянуть и каждая глава открывала передо мной новые горизонты понимания и восприятия.

"Пылающее сердце мира" — это не просто книга, это целый мир, который оставляет след в душе. Я рекомендую это произведение всем, кто ищет глубокие и трогательные истории о любви, и поиски себя.
Эта книга заставила меня задуматься о многом и, безусловно, останется в моем сердце надолго.

Based on the description of this book I thought I would love it, especially being historical fiction but it didn’t make me feel anything. I think it had the potential to be something great, but it feels more like a first draft than a completed novel. I wish it would’ve been longer, with more character development to draw me into the story and form a connection to Vera. Thank you to the publisher for the gifted arc.