The Road From Home: A True Story of Courage, Survival and Hope [Mass Market Paperback]

David Kherdian (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 24, 1995

David Kherdian re-creates his mother's voice in telling the true story of a childhood interrupted by one of the most devastating holocausts of our century. Vernon Dumehjian Kherdian was born into a loving and prosperous family. Then, in the year 1915, the Turkish government began the systematic destruction of its Armenian population.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

ISBN 0-688-14425-X This Newbery Honor book tells the affecting tale of the author's mother and her family were driven from their home in Turkey in 1915. Ages 11-up. (Aug.) q
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 13 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 242 pages
• Publisher: Greenwillow Books; First Edition edition (August 24, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 068814425X
• ISBN-13: 978-0688144258
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #260,671 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #15 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Children's Books > People & Places > Biographies > Other
  • #69 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Children's Books > People & Places > Girls & Women > Nonfiction

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best, October 12, 2000

By 

Lisa Gansky (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: The Road From Home: A True Story of Courage, Survival and Hope (Mass Market Paperback)

This is one of the best first-hand accounts about the Genocide that I've read. FINALLY, a book was written about it for younger people. Once I start teaching, this will definitely be on my list of required reading.

Kherdian started off a bit slow--I wasn't sure I'd get through it. But once I hit page 20, I couldn't put it down! It was captivating, touching. I just wanted Veron to be okay--to be able to understand what was going on. For her to survive. Only two books have ever managed to bring tears to my eyes, and this was one of them.

Even though I'm not Armenian, I've read countless books about both Armenia and the Genocide. This definitely is one of the best. It's easy to understand (though the fact that it happened is still so difficult for me to comprehend).

If you're an Armenian parent (or grandparent!) struggling to tell your teen about it, this book will help greatly. I highly recommend it. Kherdian should be given high praises for having the courage to pen this book.

40 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent reading, July 14, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Road From Home: A True Story of Courage, Survival and Hope (Mass Market Paperback)

THE ROAD FROM HOME, A True Story of Courage, Survival and Hope by David Kherdian, Beech Tree Books Reviewed by Y. Stephen Bulbulian Although considered juvenile literature, poet David Kherdian's award-winning story of his mother's young life is a story of silent determination, hope and ultimately survival. This is far more than juvenile literature. Through unbelievable adversity and suffering, there is astounding good luck and grace in the face of misfortune. "The Road From Home" is also a sociological slice of life into the being and ways of the Armenians, historic inhabitants of Anatolia, now Turkish territory. Driven from their homes and massacred, this is a classic story of Armenian survival. The young girl, Veron Dumehjian, lived a placid life in the home of her well-to-do family. She loved her family home and the garden with "the poppies that grew beyond [the] garden wall." Her desire to return to the garden kept her hopes up during years of adversity. Kherdian describes the customs, traditions, holidays, rituals, the Armenian words, and even the food, that immortalizes the life of the peaceful people, annihilated by the Turkish genocide. This book is excellent sociology, written as no sociologist could.

In her eighth year, Veron's life, the Armenian homes and countryside are darkened by the black cloud of Turkish repression. In the latter-days of the previous century, and in 1909, in Adana, Armenians suffered barbarities at the hands of the Turks, under the rule of Abdul Hamid..

Young Veron began hearing words like "deportation, massacres and annihilation." Her uncles were conscripted into the Turkish army; World War One had broken out. Using the war as an excuse, the Turks began a protracted annihilation of the Armenians. Given three days to prepare, the Dumehjian family began their forced march from the family home into the Syrian desert. Veron slowly loses all of her immediate family, brother, sister, mother, father, grandfather during the course of the journey. She becomes an orphan, nearly starved and survives with the help of deposed women (aunties) from her village. Ending up in an orphanage in Aleppo, she becomes reacquainted with relatives. Miraculously, she returns to her beloved grandmother, still living in the family home in the old village, only to discover she could not return to the idealized home she dreamed of. All things had changed, all lives were irreparably damaged by the lose of loved ones and the destruction of the Armenians. Her own grandmother, with her family lost, becomes Veron's slave-master.

Relocated in Smyrna, on the Mediterranean coast, Veron lives through yet another round of atrocities at the hands of the Turks. With uncommon luck, she and an aunt are rescued and sent to a refugee camp in Greece, where life begins again in the pursuit of normalcy. From there, she becomes a gracious and beautiful young women and a fiancee to a pre-arranged marriage in America.

"The Road From Home, " is the story of insurmountable hardship and suffering inflicted on the soul of an innocent young girl. Her ability to block the horror and tragedy from her thoughts, sublimating the pain and death she experienced daily during the darkest moments, summonsed her strength and fortitude to live. Many souls were trampled, giving her life beauty and triumph.

An outstanding and award-winning book, it is the winner of the Newbery Honor Book Award, the Jane Addams Peace Award and many others. David Kherdian crafts his mother's story, a history similar to thousands of Armenian survivors in diaspora, a sad story filled with overriding hope. The magnitude of the story and the young girl's resilience, where strength and determination overcome adversity, makes this a moving and memorable reading experience, and a story to be remembered and retold.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, June 21, 2002

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Road From Home: A True Story of Courage, Survival and Hope (Mass Market Paperback)

This was a very good book depicting the Armenian Genocide. It should be mandatory reading for children in every school system. The author's portrayal of the story is not one-sided or biased in my opinion, he tells the story 'as is' without exaggerating...there are NO graphic details of rape, murder, starvation, disease, etc. I also liked it because it portrayed the wrongful actions of the Turkish government and did not bash the Turks as people....so there is no teaching of hate or anger towards the Turkish people.