Scenario One: Armenia. No, not Albania, Armenia. No, no, it is not Romania. Armenia – it is a country in the Caucasus. What is the Caucasus? Well, we are next to…Turkey. The last thing I want to say is – we are a post-Soviet country. Because if we come to this point in the conversation, my next answers are: No, we don’t only speak Russian, we have our own language of Indo-European roots, dating back around 3000 years, alphabet created in the 4th century, development stages just like in English - old, middle and modern.
Scenario Two: “Oh, I have a friend who is Armenian. And he is a famous artist… or a musician…or a journalist….or a filmmaker…” And here we start talking about THE friend and how talented he/she is. And, of course, I write down the name to search for later, as obviously, I don’t know all the artists, musicians, journalists, filmmakers or other Armenian talent from all over the world.
Of course the second scenario provides a better foundation for future communication, but even when the publishers, editors or agents I meet have a full set of Armenian friends or neighbors and are well aware of lavash and gata, are fans of Charles Aznavour, Aram Khachatryan or mostly System of a Down, we end up talking about Armenian literature of which they usually know nothing about.
As the conversation develops I am frequently asked to reveal the N1 book on my list. And here a name emerges like a winning hand in cards, which, you always hope, will surpass the others: Goodbye, Bird by Aram Pachyan.