Abstract:

The author of this novel puts in plot the history of various families, at the moment of the fall from one hand, of an entire world, this of ottoman empire’s millets, based on the principle of individual identification following their religious beliefs and during the establishment on the other hand, of a new political organization, this of State-Nations, obsessed by the idea of individual definition on the basis of national criteria. The predominant narrative paradigm is this of the Roum millet transition towards the Greeks' nation. It is about a polyphonic novel, regarding to the expression of traumatic experiences issued by the ethnic and cultural cleansing policies, conducted by the different actors implicated in the events which stirred up trouble in the ottoman empire at the end of 19th and at the beginning of the 20th century. In this sense, the writing of this novel opposes itself to the exclusivist approaches of the historical event, largely spread across the national mythologies in Balkan countries, which are aiming at magnifying the sufferings of one’s own compatriots or kin faith worshippers, while at the same time they erase or they minimize the tragic destinies of the Others.

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