ARI Literary and Talent Agency’s writer Susanna Harutyunya’s novel Ravens Before Noah was published in French translation by Les Argonautes Éditeur. 

The novel is set in an Armenian mountainous village in 1915-1960. Harut, is a young man now and he falls for a beautiful girl who arrives to the village being tortured and raped by Turkish soldiers. She is pregnant and the old women of the village want to kill the twin baby girls as they are born, to wash away the shame. They do not succeed as Harut protects the young mother, Nakhshun and the babies. Consequently, they are being ignored by everyone in the village and as girls grow they are being constantly harassed and mocked by kids and young men.  In 1945 Soviet government sends German war-prisoners for construction works close to the hidden village. The villagers start to offer food and medical care to the prisoners and are soon being exposed by Soviet militia. Nakhshun is sent to labor camp accused in being a Turkish spy, Harut is missing and it is unclear whether he survived or was also “taken away”.