Dreams of Bread and Fire

The author's second novel, Dreams of Bread and Fire, published in 2003, is the story of an American university student named Ani Silver, who is half-Armenian and half-Jewish. He tells about the year he spent in Paris on an exchange program. Although the story takes place in the years 1982-83, the narrative frequently returns to the past, taking us to the roots of Ani's problems.

With the death of her Jewish father, Ani no longer has any ties with Judaism and is separated from her mother at a young age. Together they settle in their grandmother and grandfather's house in Watertown, which can be described as an Armenian town. This house is full of rules that can be considered extremely conservative for an American, because Ani's grandmother and grandfather are two Anatolians who immigrated to the USA after 1915. Moreover, when the forbidden topics about the old country descend on the house, Armenianness turns into a rejected identity for Ani. However, on a lonely Christmas Eve, an old friend he encounters on the streets of Paris paves the way for him to question the identity he rejects and the social upper class he tries to be a part of, and to tamper with the past.

Dreams of Bread and Fire is a very powerful novel that approaches, often with a humorous perspective, the problems of a young girl whose life changes as a result of coincidences while trying to become an upper-class American, such as love pain, identity crisis, family relations and depression.

(From the Promotional Bulletin)

Dough Type: 2. Dough

Size: 13 x 19.5

First Printing Year: 2017

Number of Prints: 1. Printing

Number of Pages: 272