Forbidden Homeland by Katia Tavitian Karageuzian
2023 Literary Titan Gold Book Award recipient, Forbidden Homeland: Story of a Diasporan is Katia Tavitian Karageuzian’s debut memoir, in which she weaves her personal diasporic accounts to the events that have been shaping the Armenian reality in the past thirty years.
In 1988, a single innocent comment made at her college in southern California leads Katia to the discovery of long-lost relatives she knew nothing about. As she decides to find answers to questions she had struggled with all her life, Katia uncovers stunning family secrets that ultimately lead to a decades-long search for something even bigger than her own identity.
“Forbidden Homeland immerses you in centuries of world-shaping history as its written pages become the rich landscape of a deeply personal journey…making you feel a part of it and reaching into your core. So it did to me. In her riveting odyssey to find the missing pieces of her own identity, Katia Tavitian Karageuzian takes the reader with her to uncover hidden truths and connect past with present. Dr. Karageuzian masterfully weaves her life’s unexpected twists and turns, layered within stories of Armenian Genocide, Lebanese Civil War, immigration, and current world events, and paints a vivid, living mosaic of the unique and shared experiences of exile and resilience, loss and rebirth, discovering finally that even when forbidden our homeland, if we search, we will find home.” – Ani Hovannisian Kevorkian, Filmmaker, The Hidden Map
“Every migrant finding a haven in America has bittersweet memories of the Old Country to hold and cherish. Karageuzian’s story stands out with the persistence of a dark shadow hovering over her picturesque description of a happy childhood interrupted by the terrors of Lebanese civil war. Halfway through her skillfully wrought narrative, the shadow closes in; she begins to untie the knots, and the narrative becomes the story of the Armenian Genocide through the lens of a third-generation survivor.” – Rubina Peroomian (PhD), Armenian Genocide Scholar, Author
“I am sure this enticingly timely volume will be read with great interest by researchers, and all readers interested in the recent turbulent history of Lebanon, the Middle East and Armenia.” – Tatul Sonentz-Papazian, Editor, Hai Sird
Katia Tavitian Karageuzian (Pharm.D) was born in Beirut, Lebanon. In 1984, she immigrated to California with her family. There she received her doctorate in Pharmacy from the University of Southern California, met her husband, and had her two sons. Parallel to her career in pharmacy, when not spending time with family, Karageuzian paints, reads about history and politics, or volunteers with several non-profit organizations. She currently serves in a genocide education committee. Connect with Karageuzian on Instagram @ktk_author.
You can purchase Forbidden Homeland on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Abril Books, and Bookshop. You can also find it on Sardarabad Book Store and IngramSpark.