Comments from the De Soto Book Discussion Group regarding our February 2014 selection:

The Sandcastle Girlsby Chris Bohjalian

Below is a summation of the members' reactions to this work.

This fictional account of the Armenian genocide of 1915 when 1.2 million Armenians were systematically eliminated proved extremely timely for today’s events in that part of the world. The book provided rich fodder for discussion, including how the plot is structured around a “photo.” Other points of discussion were the nature of atrocities like genocide and what immigrants sacrifice culturally when they flee their homeland to survive and begin a new life in another country. Most members felt the female characters were not truly realistic for the time and place but did allow the historical events to be portrayed vividly. All the members were shocked at their lack of knowledge of this genocide. One member later told me she has learned an amazing amount of geography from the book group selections.