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A Novel
by Aram Mrjoian
In this deeply moving debut, a close-knit Armenian American family grapples with the aftermath of losing one of their own.
Outside Detroit on the island of Gross Ile, the Kurkjians receive news that Mari, the eldest of their youngest generation, has swum into the depths of Lake Michigan with no intent of returning to shore—the consequences of which drag out a deeply rooted pain passed down from generations before.
More than a century earlier, Gregor, the great-grandfather and patriarch of the Kurkjian family, survived the Armenian Genocide after fighting for his freedom atop Musa Dagh. Decades later and miles away, Gregor's epic mythos is inherited by his family as they navigate living in its shadow. As the Kurkjians now struggle with their new, devastating loss, secrets and shortcomings rise to the surface, forcing each relative to decide where their own story fits in the narrative of their family's fraught history.
For fans of Tommy Orange's There, There, Thao Thai's Banyan Moon, and Jeffrey Eugenides' epic Middlesex, Waterline explores the complex beauty of diaspora, the weight of inherited trauma, and the echoes of the Genocide on contemporary Armenian life. This is a searing portrait of a family afloat in grief and the perseverance needed to rise above.
"A gripping journey through time, Mrjoian brings readers deep into the heart of the Armenian Genocide and its ripples across generations. With a voice wholly unique in its style, Mrjoian weaves a powerful tapestry of survival, identity, and resilience, all the while never abandoning what makes this book that rare great novel: feeling, the very thing that each of us knows and that binds us. It is no wonder, then, how Mrjoian is able to find the beauty in the brutality of this history, and in the unyielding spirit of family. Waterline is a must-read—intense, moving, and unforgettable." —Morgan Talty, national bestselling author of Night of the Living Rez and Fire Exit
"Waterline is a moving portrait of grief and the shadows of silence. Aram Mrjoian shines a piercing and wise light on the way the members of one Armenian family care for and alienate each other with their secrets, and asks the question, how do we keep loving through unspeakable loss?" —Vanessa Chan, bestselling author of The Storm We Made
This information about Waterline was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Aram Mrjoian is the editor-in-chief of The Rumpus, managing editor of Michigan Quarterly Review, and a 2022 Creative Armenia-AGBU Fellow. Aram has previously worked as an editor at the Chicago Review of Books, the Southeast Review, and TriQuarterly. He is also the editor of the anthology We Are All Armenian: Voices from the Diaspora. His writing has appeared in the Guardian, Runner's World, Literary Hub, Catapult, West Branch, Electric Literature, Gulf Coast, Boulevard, Joyland, Longreads, and many other publications. He holds an MFA in creative writing from Northwestern University and a PhD in creative writing from Florida State University. He lives in Michigan.
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