Three Apples Fell from Heaven

Micheline Aharonian Marcom Three Apples Fell from Heaven New York. Riverhead. 2001. 270 pages $23.95. ISBN 1-57322-186-4

MICHELINE AHARONIAN MARCOM'S remarkable first novel depicts the suffering of an Anatolian village during the Armenian genocide of the early twentieth century. Interwoven first-person narratives - of Armenians and Turks, soldiers and civilians, young and old, men and women, Catholic, Orthodox, and Muslim, the living and the dead - evoke the rich culture, history, and life rhythms of Kharphert. A strong-willed Turkish prostitute intuits from her dalliances with high-ranking politicians their motivations. The American consul voices his horror of "barbarism," implicit critique of victims, adherence to political exigency, and self-serving dissembling, thus echoing subsequent Western policies toward genocide. And Rumor, the eternal storyteller, embeds the novel's truths in a mythic...