George B. Kooshian found himself thrust into the middle of the epic history of the early twentieth century in the Near East, Europe, and America. This day-by-day eyewitness account begins with the author's pre-World War I education in American schools in Turkey and continues to his arrest and exile into the merciless Syrian desert by the Ottoman government in 1915 and his harrowing escape from massacre between the legs of his executioner across the searing terrain to safety and ultimate emigration to the United States. He carried with him at all times his precious diary and pencil, and recorded everything he saw for posterity. Unforgettable saints and sinners populated his life: his beloved mother and his benefactor the Reverend Barker, the mysterious Tahir Effendi and his son Shukru, the monstrous Ahmed Chavoush and the elderly Hussein Effendi, the unfortunate Hampartzoum and Hafiz the desert judge, the rescuers Hripsime and Boghos Ouzunian, the deceitful Armenian minister and the just Turkish bey, and an unending procession of notable and not-so-notable characters. His memoirs, originally intended for his children and grandchildren, are an incredible testimony to the triumph of the human spirit in the face of the most extreme trials, sustained by "youth, and a gleam of hope."
