The Burning Heart of the World: A Novel

by Nancy Kricorian

AUTHOR OF THE BESTSELLER, ZABELLE • AUTHOR OF THE NEW YORK TIMES REVIEWED, ALL THE LIGHT THERE WAS


Nancy Kricorian named a creative activist on the Wallpaper* USA 400 list


In vivid, poetic prose, Nancy Kricorian’s The Burning Heart of the World tells the story of a Beirut Armenian family before, during, and after the Lebanese Civil War.


“You won’t be able to put this book down."—Marie Myung-Ok Lee, author of The Evening Hero • “vivid, reverberating life.”—Aram Saroyan, author of Still Night in L.A.


Returning to the fabular tone of Zabelle , her popular first novel, Kricorian conjures up the lost worlds and intergenerational traumas that haunt a family in permanent exile. Leavened with humor and imbued with the timelessness of a folktale, The Burning Heart of the World is a sweeping saga that takes readers on an epic journey from the mountains of Cilicia to contemporary New York City.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Literary Fiction, Audiobook, War, Lebanon, Middle East

184 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 1, 2025

About the author

Nancy Kricorian, who was born and raised in the Armenian community of Watertown, Massachusetts, is the author of four novels about post-genocide Armenian diaspora experience, including Zabelle, which was translated into seven languages, was adapted as a play, and has been continuously in print since 1998. Her latest novel, The Burning Heart of the World, is about Armenians in Beirut during the Lebanese Civil War. Her essays and poems have appeared in The Los Angeles Review of Books Quarterly, Guernica, Parnassus, Minnesota Review, The Mississippi Review, and other journals. She has taught at Barnard, Columbia, Yale, and New York University, as well as with Teachers & Writers Collaborative in the New York City Public Schools, and has been a mentor with We Are Not Numbers since 2015. She has been the recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, a Gold Medal from the Writers Union of Armenia, and the Anahid Literary Award, among other honors. She lives in New York City.

Reviews

[Erica Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just finished this book driving from Richmond to Charlottesville. It's a short novel that packs an emotional wallop. I liked the story well enough through the first 80% but the last chapter, about 29 minutes long in the audiobook, absolutely gutted me. I'm talking full on bawling so hard I had to pull over to compose myself. I think the burning heart of the world is the human ability to be both the source and the victim of such horrific violence. This singular thread recurring through generations. Is trauma just hard wired into our DNA?

2026 Tournament of Books Longlist: 23 of 70

2026 Tournament of Books Shortlist: 2 of 18

[Bob Lopez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Emotionally engaging novel about trauma, firsthand and generational, and about a family and a girl in particular, Vera, trying to hold on to the everydayness of life while living under the constant threat of war. The war here is at a remove, in the distance--there are warnings of it and the family, among others, go into hiding, in basements, parking garages, hallways. The war happens outside the walls, it shakes the house, dust and plaster descends from the rafters, Vera and her brothers and her family try to sleep, plan for the next day while the world rumbles and gunfire sounds off like fireworks. It's visceral and terrifying, and honestly, wearying. All the while, Vera is trying to navigate growing up, hanging out with her friends, an illicit (though maybe sanctioned) affair between a friend (though they're only really friendly when in hiding) and a grown man--Vera serves as go-between ferrying messages back and forth between the lovers, school, her art, and that new boy in school.

I enjoyed the short, first part of the book, the part set later in Vera's life around the time of September 11th. Navigating that event, the way she was cool and calm about it, citing PTSD, seemed out of step with most experiences of that time, but then the book breaks to her past in Beirut, and we start to understand why it was..."easy" for her get through it.

Great, powerful novel.

[Ellen H · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it. Loved. It. I know nothing about Lebanon and wars there and Armenians in a war there or anything, but this is a beautiful book about children growing up in a war environment and becoming immigrants/aliens elsewhere. With a folktale appended at the end which ties it all together. It did remind me of a bunch of other books, but it has its own DNA. Very nice.

It also was the hardest to find -- none of my 3 library systems had it. I got it through ILL and I'm going to urge my library to buy it.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent quick read about an Armenian family living in Beirut after fleeing Turkey, and then due to the Lebanese Civil War fleeing to the USA. The grown children who remember the war face memories during 9/11 with their own children. A short novel, but high impact. The ending made me weep.

[Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely writing in this story of an Armenian family in the Lebanese Civil War with almost a YA vibe. I was introduced to this book and author by the 2026 Tournament of Books.

[Peggy · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5
What a way to start 2026.

An emotional book about generational trauma and the way hope can survive despite terrible odds.

The events of 9/11 prompt Vera, an Armenian forced to flee her Beirut home decades earlier thanks to violent civil war, to revisit that traumatic time. As she fears that the violence has found her again in New York, she considers the violence she already endured and what her family sacrificed.

The prose is beautiful: wondrous, fable-like, unvarnished. The story shouldn't have to be told and yet it gets told continuously. Trauma embeds itself in unseen ways, waiting to make its presence known. But the novel doesn't wallow; it shows deliberate perseverance in the face of fear. It really is beautiful. The ending...with Sosi's story and the guardian dove...a beautiful gut punch.

[Sabina · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lyrical beautifully crafted novel about a family, intergenerational trauma, and struggle to survive, rebuild, resow, restore in the face of genocides, wars and exile. It reminds us that despite the loss, the memory and trauma of our ancestors never leaves us. While so much of our history is lost or erased, we can feel that memory and trauma in our bones. The memory is an integral part we carry in our bodies, and I love how Kricorian explores this through her characters with so much love and care. I felt as if I knew them, as if they were plucked from my own past through the memories living deeply in my bones.

[Lindsay Stenico · Rating 5 out of 5]

Raw, emotional, and magical in every way that matters. A must read that needs to be moved to the top of your TBR pile immediately.

[Elaine · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautifully done meditation on generational trauma that weaves in myth and dreams, stretching backwards from 9/11, through the Lebanese civil war, to the Armenian genocide. Each of the three distinct parts of this short novel packs a walloping punch, while also skillfully depicting the ordinary events of childhood and adolescence in wartime. I have rarely been so moved by a book. Highly recommended.

[Alyson Indrunas · Rating 5 out of 5]

"She suddenly felt as though her life was a garment held together with safety pins."

"If there were wisdom in beards, then goats would be profits."

"Exile is a burning shirt I will never wear again."

Loved this three part story of war and how life goes on during horrifying events.

[Mateosyew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Others have written better reviews of this book, so I’ll leave it to them. I’ll give you a brief, honest impression.

The story did not draw me in at first. I found it hard to figure out who the reader was supposed to identify with. As I read on, the characters came into focus and I became much more invested.

For me, the ending sold the book (no spoilers). The author’s talents were on full display. I am a jaded soul, but it struck me like an arrow to the heart. That last story affected me in a way few authors have. Truly masterful.

My advice to you, if you aren’t “into” the first few pages: keep reading. There is gold here.

[Jessica (thebluestocking) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book sucked me in and didn’t let me go until I tears were streaming down my face as I finished the last chapter. The writing is simple but profound, like the story itself. It takes us through Vera’s life, jumping timelines and places, as she and her family deal with war and violence and displacement. I will be reading this again and pressing it into others' hands.

(This is my favorite so far of this year’s Tournament of Books contenders.)

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably more like 3.5 but rounding up. Sweet and short, I wish the story had come back to the US part.

[Caryl Núñez (cah-di) · Rating 5 out of 5]

A child survived what should have destroyed her. Because ordinary language could not contain that fact, she gave it wings.

[Kyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

For refugees, safety and stability are rarely guaranteed, and even years or decades after the fact, it’s still easy to feel scared--trauma is hard to shake and is often passed down through generations. This story follows a Lebanese Armenian family through several decades - their displacement from the genocide in Armenia, their time in Beirut interrupted by a civil war, and then finally the daughter, Vera, all grown up with a family in New York in 2001. I learned a good bit about the Armenian community in Lebanon - weird how this is the second book set during that civil war that I’ve read in the last few months - and I thought the book ended in quite a lovely way, if seeming a little incomplete.

[Wendelle]

A short but intense novel showing the savagery of war from the eyes of a child. Set in the onset of the Lebanese Civil War, Vera, Armen and Raffi are three children who just want to go to school and interact with their friends. But they are forced to grow up fast as they grapple with horrendous images that become part of daily life. Men are beaten at checkpoints, bullets whizz by walls, missiles fly over the din of classrooms, bomb shelters and roaming militias of men stocked with rifles become part of daily life. Reports of new deaths reach their worried parents' ears. Vera loves Beirut, but could they stay? This is an intense novel that solidifies how horrific war and violence is.

[Calvin Cheng · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't think this story tells enough to make for a complete tale. The plot is disconnected, with no background on any of the conflicts. The stakes are explained, but they are not fully shown, and the characters don't explain enough to get a solid grasp on what exactly is going on. Perhaps I just prefer looking at the big picture rather than the limited perspectives that the characters give us.

I also personally don't really get a poetic vibe in reading this, but I do get a sense that the author intended for each chapter to end on a poetic note, especially with the final chapter, but to me they all fall flat. I probably just don't understand the metaphor or symbolism that others might find meaningful, and the author's prose gives the impression that this is a YA novel.

However, there are enough events and plot points that are interesting enough to keep one engaged throughout this novel. It is a short read and tells enough to make one feel like this book is worth reading, especially if one knows nothing about Lebanon and the conflicts that happened there.

I've also read enough horror books to not feel anything from the atrocities described in this novel, but I'm sure a teenager would find a lot of meaning in this story.

2.5 out of 5 stars

[Gwendolyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nancy Kricorian’s The Burning Heart of the World follows Vera, a Lebanese-Armenian girl growing up during the Lebanese Civil War, tracing her family’s experiences of violence, displacement, and diaspora across generations, from the Armenian genocide to a new life in the United States. The novel moves between Vera’s childhood in war-torn Beirut and her adulthood in New York. Vera appears to have built a stable life in the U.S. until 9/11 raises the trauma from her past. What struck me most about this book is how powerfully it captures trauma as a lived, ongoing experience rather than something that can ever truly be resolved. This is a slender but powerful novel. I listened to this as an audiobook, and it worked well in that format.

[Kat's Bookshelf · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. I'll be thinking about this one for a long time to come. Burning Heart of the World follows an Armenian family living through the Civil War in Lebanon.

The war serves as a backdrop to Vera's family's life. As it rages around them, they still go to work, go to school, hang out with friends, etc, but they cannot escape it. The women of Vera's family - her grandmother, her mother, and Vera herself - create the scaffold for the story. They are strong and resilient and fiercely protective of their family.

This short book packs several emotional gut punches, but is also filled with love and humor that families share. It's an amazing, beautiful and important book.

5 stars

[M R · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a short novel that is a relationship oriented story at different time periods in a Beirut Armenian girl/woman's life, Vera. I appreciated the way the author used each character's reaction to new realities of war or trauma to create a picture or felt sense of relationship to place and family. I will do more history reading now. I also thought the order in which the author told the story skipping through time was effective, saving the great aunt's story to last, which was heartbreaking and important both to the other characters lives and metaphorically.

[Kateri · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel is so beautiful. Kricorian’s simple and elegant prose was thick with pain and love. The story is told in a reverse chronological order, giving the reader a deeper understanding of how our past, and that of our ancestors, informs our present. More than anything, I was affected by her descriptions of living in war torn Beirut and imagining all those for whom this is a currently a reality.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully written and heartbreaking and resilient. Really deep characters that evolve and I enjoyed how we go back in time to peel back more layers of the family trauma. Not familiar with Lebanese or Armenian history and this definitely made me more interested.

[Bryn Lerud · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a beautiful and sad book about an Armenian family kicked out of Turkey, then driven out of Lebanon, and finally arriving in the US.

[Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Based on the description of this book I thought I would love it, especially being historical fiction but it didn’t make me feel anything. I think it had the potential to be something great, but it feels more like a first draft than a completed novel. I wish it would’ve been longer, with more character development to draw me into the story and form a connection to Vera. Thank you to the publisher for the gifted arc.

[Nanor Pogosian · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story delves into war and displacement and all that it brings with it, PTSD, generational trauma, and a feeling of never feeling rooted in one place. The book moves from Vera's adulthood in NY during 9/11, to Vera's adolescent years in Beirut during the 1980's civil war, before her family emigrated to the U.S., and lastly where Vera's grandmother came from, Hadjin, a Cilician Armenian village, whose inhabitants were massacred and driven away during the Armenian Genocide, carried out by the Turks, in 1915. It's beautifully written and I really enjoyed and appreciated it. I have just have one critique, I wish the author included details about the food.

[Mirana_shy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley for this Advence Reader’s copy.

This book was very lyrical and i enjoyed learning a little bit about Armenia and its history .
This books navigate between the present and the past of Vera’s life. It explained, how it was to live your childhood with war and what repercussions it has on you even later in life. It explains how the trauma of the war is never really healed and how, even the smallest thing, can make you feel unsafe all over again.
I just wish, i could have read more about Vera in the US, to know how she would have handle this new challenge in her life.

[Maria Beltrami · Rating 4 out of 5]

The tragedy of the Twin Towers takes the protagonist back in time, first to when her family fled war-torn Beirut, and then further back, to the heart of all the evil suffered by the Armenian people, whose suffering is still easily forgotten today. The protagonist's memories take the reader through the trauma of exile, her childhood fear of returning home from school and not finding her family. Of the possibility of dying, every day, in the most cruel and futile of ways.
A book that is difficult to put down and difficult to forget.

[Damien Edwards · Rating 4 out of 5]

An extremely well-written novel that splits between the 2001 attacks in New York and an Armenian family during the Lebanese Civil War. It really shines a light on a group not typically represented in American novels and its powerful, gorgeous prose kept me engaged through the whole experience.

[Carol Dimitriou · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sad but hopeful story about an Armenian girl living in Lebanon, her and her family's move to America, and the stories she hears from her grandmother about the past. The Armenian Genocide and the trauma that is passed down from generation to generation is the back story of this book.

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow this just about knocked my lungs out by the end despite being a compact novel. Clear, straightforward prose serves the material well as the story is painful and tragic and focused on all the ways human beings can brutalize one another. This warrants a reread.