The Lamppost Diary

by Agop J. Hacikyan

For young Tomas, nothing in Istanbul is certain, except perhaps the lamppost at the end of his street that he touches every day for luck on his way to school.

WWII rages, the spectre of the Armenian genocide haunts his parents and he is unsure of the affections of his neighbour Anya, the daughter of White Russian emigres. Anya and Tomas fall in love. Ten years on, Anya is in the US studying medicine while Tomas tries to scrape enough money together to join her. He becomes the editor of a new literary magazine, and things seem to be going his way until one of his writers is brutally murdered, apparently because of a story Tomas has published.

Can Tomas flee the country and rejoin Anya before getting caught up in the murder investigation?

Agop J. Hacikyan is a Canadian academic and writer of Armenian descent. He is the author of several books on literature and linguistics as well as five novels, including A Summer Without Dawn, an international bestseller. He has resided in Montreal since 1957.

270 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2009

About the author

Agop Jack Hacikyan (born 1931) is a Canadian university Emeritus Professor of Literary Studies, historian, academic and writer. He is the author of over 30 books on literature and linguistics, and five novels. He is known as the co-author of one of the most comprehensive anthologies of Armenian literature, The Heritage of Armenian Literature: From the Eighteenth Century to Modern Times (Wayne State University Press, 2005).[2]

Hacikyan was born in Istanbul to Armenian parents. After completing the first year of his engineering degree, Hacikyan left Turkey to study literature. He received his PhD in London and has lived in Quebec since 1957

Reviews

[Kara Bohonowicz · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was captured with his liracy. "Skinnier than the shadow of a piece of macaroni." "...useless as a stiffened paintbrush..." "The clocks didn't move on; the minutes were on strike." "There was a sepulchral silence." "Those who were blessed with some sagacity tried to convince Mama that Emma was with the Good Lord."

As the book continued on I became more and more bored. If I were to compare this to the Kite Runner, since this book is supposedly about a city ravaged by geonocide, I would have to say: if these type of books are cars, Kite Runner is a Cadallac Escalade and The Lamppost Diary is a Geo Metro.

[Yasemin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The stories are interesting, sometimes sad, but the style is not that impressive. Also, although we get a lot of detail about the character's younger years, towards the end things go really fast, without much detail. I think the book may have been a bit longer.

[Narod Yanıkoğlu · Rating 4 out of 5]

It has a really good chronology of historical events in Turkey. The author told every cruel things in a soft way that as a reader you don’t feel that cruel things

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

An odd mix of a book, both in content and style, but with an interesting look at Turkey in the 1950s and 1960s.