Dawn Anahid MacKeen

"The inspiring story of a young Armenian's harrowing escape from genocide and of his granddaughter's quest to retrace his steps. Growing up, Dawn MacKeen heard fragments of her grandfather Stepan's story, of how he was swept up in the deadly mass deportation of Armenians during World War I and of how he miraculously managed to escape. Longing for a fuller picture of Stepan's life--and the lost home her family fled--Dawn travels alone to Turkey and Syria, across a landscape still rife with tension. Using his long-lost journals as a guide, she reconstructs her grandfather's odyssey to the far reaches of the Ottoman Empire, where he found himself in the midst of unspeakable atrocities. Part reportage, part memoir, The Hundred-Year Walk alternates between Stepan's tale of resilience and Dawn's remarkable journey, giving us a rare firsthand account of the twentieth century's first genocide. It's filled with edge-of-your-seat escapes and accounts of lifesaving kindnesses in the harsh desert. And it's in the desert that Dawn finds the unexpected: the secret to Stepan's survival"--

an Armenian odyssey

The hundred-year walk

A Dayton Literary Peace Prize Finalist and New York Post Must-Read. “An emotionally poignant work” of survival during the Armenian genocide (Aline Ohanesian, author of Orhan’s Inheritance). Growing up, Dawn MacKeen heard from her mother how her grandfather Stepan miraculously escaped from the Turks during the Armenian genocide of 1915, when more than one million people—half the Armenian population—were killed. In The Hundred-Year Walk, MacKeen alternates between Stepan’s courageous account, drawn from his long-lost journals, and her own story as she attempts to retrace his steps, setting out alone to Turkey and Syria, shadowing her resourceful, resilient grandfather across a landscape still rife with tension. Dawn uses his journals to guide her to the places he was imperiled and imprisoned and the desert he crossed with only half a bottle of water. Their shared story is a testament to family, to home, and to the power of the human spirit to transcend the barriers of religion, ethnicity, and even time itself. “This book reminds us that the way we treat strangers can ripple out in ways we will never know . . . MacKeen’s excavation of the past reveals both uncomfortable and uplifting lessons about our present.”—Ari Shapiro, NPR “I am in awe of what Dawn MacKeen has done here . . . Her sentences sing. Her research shines. Her readers will be rapt—and a lot smarter by the end.”—Meghan Daum, author of The Problem with Everything “Harrowing.”—Us Weekly “This previously untold story of survival and personal fortitude is on par with Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken.”—Library Journal (starred review)

Dawn Anahid MacKeen

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