Rima Elkouri is a writer, journalist and columnist for La Presse in Montreal. A Montrealer since birth, Elkouri writes in French. Most of her works have not been translated into English. The exception is Manam, her first novel that was published in French in 2019. Elkouri’s heritage is partially Armenian.
Fiction
Manam: A Novel
Translated by Phyllis Aronoff and Howard Scott.
Toronto: Mawenzi House, 2021.
Translation of: Manam.
PS8609.L533 M3613 2021
Publisher’s Synopsis (From its website)
Léa is a teacher. She does not believe in silence and secrecy, and this is what she always tells her pupils. Silence isn’t a large part of the inheritance she received from her Téta, her beloved Armenian grandmother, who has just died at the age of one hundred and seven. Regularly over the years her large Armenian family would gather around Téta, and she would tell stories. But there is one story that she refused to tell. As soon as Léa brought it up, Téta quickly changed the subject. Now Léa wants to find out and understand the story of her ancestors. She goes to Turkey, and with the help of a Kurdish filmmaker and guide, visits her ancestral village, Manam. She learns that during the Armenian genocide at the beginning of the twentieth century, almost the entire population of Manam was killed or fled to exile in Syria. How did her grandmother and her family survive? Rima Elkouri, with great sensitivity paints the portrait of a family that wills itself to survive.
Awards and Honours
2022 Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize (Finalist)
Links
Publisher Mawenzi House