About the book

Tote Bag, a novel

Siranush is a scientist from Armenia, who studied and worked in Germany, then moved to Denmark to work as an associate professor at a university. Her life as a foreigner, first in Germany and then in Denmark is very complicated due to huge cultural differences between her homeland and these European countries. Being an introvert, she has difficulty integrating, while obviously the locals are not very much open to foreigners either. Her communication is limited to her childhood friend Aram and his wife who also live in Aarhus and Zehra, a feminist scientist with Turkish roots. Siranush is struggling from loneliness and dives into exploration of her female identity, feminist activism and unsuccessfully tries to meet people outside of her university. Soon COVID-19 hits with the lockdown and impossibility to live a social life. In the worst times of loneliness and depression an imaginary friend of Siranush, Katja visits and soothes her pain. Amid COVID, when the limitations are slightly off, and life seems to get back to normal, Azerbaijan attacks Armenian inhabited Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh), an unrecognized state and a subject of 30 year long conflict between these countries. Siranush dives fully into her Armenian identity and puts all her efforts into building awareness about the situation. After the war ends with the full defeat of Armenia and Azerbaijan taking over a large part of Nagorno-Karabakh, threatening the safety of Armenians living there, Siranush is broken. Aram and his wife return to Armenia, while Siranush questions her own choices and comes back to the question of belonging. She settles for not belonging anywhere and being an Armenian in a distance. In the final scene of the book, she meets Zehra in the street and sees her carrying the tote bag “Recognize Artsakh” that she gave her during the war.