Changes

|title=The Gendarme

|sort=Gendarme

|borrow=Yes

|isbn=978-1851688265

|pages=302

|publisher=Oneworld Publications

|date=September 2011

|website=

|video=

|summary=The events of the Armenian genocide at the hands of the Turks during the First World War is still surrounded by controversy and emotion. Mark Mustian creates a harrowing account of this through the eyes of one of its perpetrators, who falls in love with one of his victims. Yet at the same time he creates ultimately a tale of hope and spirit which celebrates life in the midst of death.

}}

There are times when you will want to shut 'The Gendarme' and just walk away from the despair and disgust that this account of genocide engenders. Don't. Ultimately this tale of an old Turk revisiting his terrible past is both touching and important - an exploration of memory and forgiveness that shouldn't be missed.

Mustian is not the only writer to have looked into the experiences of war, and particularly the experiences of those very minor characters which are not part of normal histories, and to have derived a sense of nobility in the face of horror. [[The Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean]] explores the life of a museum guard in the Leningrad siege, again seeing war through the eyes of a character's older self.

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[[Category:Literary Fiction|Gendarme]]