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The Gendarme

About the Book

The Gendarme

To those around him, Emmett Conn is an old man on the verge of senility. A World War I veteran, he’s been affected by memory loss since being injured in the war. Now, at the end of his life, he’s beset by memories of events he and others have denied or purposely forgotten.

In Emmett’s dreams he’s a gendarme, escorting Armenians from Turker. A young woman among them, Araxie, captivates and enthralls him. She becomes the love of his life. But then the trek ends, the war separates them. He is injured. Seven decades later, as his grasp on the boundaries between past and present begins to break down, he sets out on a final journey, to find Araxie, and beg her forgiveness.

Alternating between Turkey at the dawn of the twentieth century and Americs in the 1990s, The Gendarme shows how love can overcome nationalities and politics, and how the human spirit fights to survive in the face of hopelessness. It is a transcendent novel.

The Gendarme
by Mark T. Mustian

  • Publication Date: September 2, 2010
  • Hardcover: 304 pages
  • Publisher: Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam
  • ISBN-10: 0399156348
  • ISBN-13: 9780399156342