All the Ways We Lied

"All the Ways We Lied is an exquisitely-told family story, a jewel box filled with unique prismatic characters, luminescent in its exploration of love and betrayal among three Armenian American sisters and their cataclysmic mother. Aida Zilelian masterfully navigates their complex, interconnected emotions with compassionate precision as the women alternately confront and turn away from the disappointments in their lives, as they reach for each other even as they struggle to find their own way. Ultimately a story of bravery during a time of grief, All the Ways We Lied will draw you into vulnerable moments across continents and cultures, leading you to the most tender, comforting, and insightful definition of the word 'home.'" —Nancy Agabian, The Fear of Large and Small Nations

"At last! A terrific novel about a modern-day Armenian family, fraught with the chaos, capriciousness, and conflicts you can find in Armenian families and beyond, bringing to mind the best parts of Lahiri's The Namesake, Tan's The Joy Luck Club and a twist of Franzen's The Corrections. Zilelian's memorable work challenges the taboos of traditional cultures with unflinching honesty. At the same time, she measures the breadth and depths of kinship, self-sacrifice and ultimately the sense of autonomy. A must-read exploration of familial love and heartache." —Arthur Nersesian, author of The Fuck-Up

"Reading Aida Zilelian’s clear-eyed and captivating new novel – All the Ways We Lied – reminds me, once again, that specificity is universal, and that strong storytelling is anchored to our core humanity. Page after poignant page, I found echoes of my own life in the characters of Kohar, Lucine, Azad, and the entire Garabedian clan. This panoramic family tale cuts to the heart of what it means to forgive each other and, ultimately, ourselves." —Jared Harél, author of Let Our Bodies Change the Subject, Winner of the Raz/Shumaker Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry 

"Zilelian takes a fascinating micro look at an Armenian American family suffering from collective generational trauma. Her writing captures the wildly different personalities of the main characters, depicted with compassion and deep psychological acuity. With All the Ways We Lied, the Manoukians join America’s First Families of Literature as Zilelian’s wry prose draws the reader in for an intimate portrait of contemporary America." —Chris Atamian, award-winning author of A Poet in Washington Heights

"All the Ways We Lied is a masterful, engrossing novel depicting the perfect storm of generational trauma and complicated family dynamics, and the strong women caught at the center of it, all yearning at their core to love and to be loved. Zilelian captures the burden and overwhelm of the eldest immigrant daughter expertly, along with the relatable resentments and grievances of a life spent straining against one's prescribed role in the family ecosystem.

Resilience is a word that's often used when discussing immigrant narratives; All the Ways We Lied examines the cost of what is lost in the name of resilience and survival. 

The novel follows the women of this Armenian-American family as they reconsider how exactly to thrive on the path they've desperately carved out for themselves when sisterhood, motherhood, marriage, and career were not what they expected. With gorgeous prose and a page-turning plot featuring characters you won't soon forget, this is necessary reading for all children of immigrants." —Christine Kandic Torres, author of The Girls in Queens

"The dark and light of tangled family relations are depicted in the pages of All the Ways We Lied. The book is a warm, entertaining and heart-rending read with a cast of endearing, albeit flawed, characters. Aida Zilelian understands how people are pinned together. How they’re shaped by their parents and their parents by the generations before them and, in the case of this Armenian family, by a tragic history of loss and displacement.” —Eve Makis, author of The Spice Box Letters

"Aida Zilelian’s accomplished second novel unfolds with rare grace and tenderness. The raucous imperfections of the Armenian-American family depicted in its pages, the way they spiral out and inevitably back into each other’s lives, their unstinting patience and ultimate kindness towards each other, will remind us of our own. I wish I could spend many more pages with Kohar, Lucine, Azad, and yes, even Takouhi.” —Arif Anwar, author of The Storm