Forty Days Of Musa Dagh, The (Penguin Modern Classics)

'Musa Dagh stood beyond the world. No storm would reach it, even if one should break'

It is 1915 and Gabriel has returned to his childhood home, an Armenian village on the slopes of Musa Dagh. But things are becoming increasingly dangerous for his people in Turkey, and, as the government orders round-ups and deportations, the villagers of Musa Dagh decide to fight back. The seminal novel of the Armenian genocide, Franz Werfel's bestselling 1933 epic brought the catastrophe to the world's attention for the first time, and has become a talismanic story of resistance in the face of hatred.

'Forty Days will invade your senses and keep the blood pounding. Once read, it will never be forgotten' The New York Times

Translated by Geoffrey Dunlop and James Reidel

Review: Forty Days will invade your senses and keep the blood pounding. Once read, it will never be forgotten * The New York Times *
In every sense a true and thrilling novel... It tells a story which it is almost one's duty as an intelligent human being to read. And one's duty here becomes one's pleasure also * New York Times Book Review *
Werfel's book ... did more than the efforts of any diplomat, journalist, or historian to encourage speech about the unspeakable. It arrives today as a timely reminder that savagery thrives in silence * The Barnes and Noble Review *
A crackling read. Symphonic in its handling of profound themes, respectful of its most vacillating characters, Werfel's novel is a grand and satisfying story about the necessities and difficulties of leadership * Booklist *

Author Biography: Franz Werfel (born 1890) was already a successful writer when in 1933 he published The Forty Days of Musa Dagh, inspired by the desperate plight of Armenian children he had seen working in a Syrian carpet factory. A bestseller and Werfel's masterpiece, the book brought the Armenian genocide to the world's attention for the first time but was burned by the Nazis. Werfel, an Austrian Jew, was forced to flee Europe, narrowly escaping with his life. He died in Los Angeles in 1945.