Agop J. Hacikyan is a Canadian writer of Armenian descent. He is the author of several books on literature and linguistics as well as five novels, including the international bestseller A Summer without Dawn (Interlink, 2010). He lives in Montreal.
Agop J. Hacikyan.
published 2011 • 5 ¼” x 8” • 270 pages
ISBN 9781566568555 • paperback • $15.00 •
“Serious autobiographical scenes create many key moments in the story…Exceptionally interesting well-developed characters…a haunted older generation…a powerful portrait of a diverse and enjoyable city…a novel of the romance of the heart.”—BBC World Service
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“A captivating love letter to a lost city.”
—Maureen Freely
For young Tomas, nothing in Istanbul is certain, except for the lamppost that he touches every day for luck on his way to school. World War Two rages, the specter of the Armenian genocide haunts his parents and he is unsure of the affections of his neighbor Anya, the daughter of White Russian émigrés.
Anya and Tomas fall in love. Ten years on, Anya is in the United States studying medicine while Tomas tries to scrape together enough money to join her. He becomes the editor of a new literary magazine, and things seem to be going his way until one of his writers is brutally murdered, apparently because of a story Tomas has published. Can Tomas flee the country and rejoin Anya before getting caught up in the murder investigation?
Agop J. Hacikyan is a Canadian writer of Armenian descent. He is the author of several books on literature and linguistics as well as five novels, including the international bestseller A Summer without Dawn (Interlink, 2010). He lives in Montreal.
Interlink Books
Media Reviews
“Agop J. Hacikyan’s The Lamppost Diary is one of those novels that discerning readers will read and read again. The most prominent aspect of good literature is that the recounted story, while poignantly personal, should also be universal. Only novels in that vein cross borders, cultures, religions and ethnicities and reveal to us that the family of humankind is truly a family and that the human spirit, as it bears all its joys and sufferings—sadly more sufferings than joy—endures similar, if not the same, odysseys everywhere in the globe. That is the stamp of universality—a stamp that will always endorse the fact those considerations as to who we are, where we come from and what we believe in, are immaterial in the cosmic design. We live, love and die in much the same way as our billions of brothers and sisters. And I believe the confirmation of this fact is the task of every writer worth his or her salt. With The Lamppost Diary, Agop J. Hacikyan has certainly merited his salt and more. His novel celebrates life. And whilst we, too, should rush to celebrate our lives, we should at the same time celebrate our extraordinary mentor, Agop J. Hacikyan.” —Moris Farhi, Member of the British Empire (MBE), Fellow of Royal Society of Literature, Vice-president of International PEN, celebrated novelist, playwright and screenwriter
“An accomplished stylist, Agop Hacikyan captures the many moods and voices of the small boy turning teenager, rebel and adult so that it’s hard to remember this is not a memoir. Don’t be fooled by the humor, colorful characters and legerdemain of his writing. Hacikyan skillfully tackles the major catastrophes of the Armenian tragedy in Turkey, from the Genocide to the Wealth Tax and beyond, with deep humanity, compassion and level accuracy. Much as I loved the youthful escapades, it was the young man’s maturity, political and romantic dilemmas which took my breath away. The recent crop of novels coming out of, or about Turkey could benefit from the editor’s red pencil. This leaner prose is head and shoulders above anything I have read recently and more attuned to western audiences.” —Nouritza Matossian, BBC broadcaster and contributor to the Independent, the Guardian, the Economist and the Observer. Her book, Black Angel, inspired Atom Egoyan’s controversial film ARARAT
“Hacikyan’s whole treatment of his characters [is] interspersed with historical details…The novel even includes notes informing us of the interventions of factual events into the fiction…all enrich the narrative and spice the story…At the end, the novel left me wanting more…Perhaps there will be a sequel, in which case I would definitely read it.”
—Ashley Perks, British columnist for London Turkish Gazette
http://www.interlinkbooks.com/product_info.php?products_id=2796&osCsid=7e98eb3d21f7fec6fb72830ce2cd8f64
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