READER’ S GUIDE TO THE TENTH-ANNIVERSARY EDITION

1. Peter’s grandmother Nafina tells him cryptic tales throughout his childhood. He recounts one of the most memorable, which bears the book’s namesake, on pages 9 to 11. Why is the rich woman, who offers the spring lamb, turned away by Fate, and why is the poor woman, bearing the dead black dog, taken in? What do you think the story means in the larger context of Nafina’s past?

2. Peter recalls helping his grandmother cook when he was a child and contrasts the extravagant, painstaking meals his family prepares with the quick frozen dinners of his suburban American neighbors. How else is food represented throughout the book? What is the significance of food in the framework of the larger story of Black Dog of Fate?

3. In what ways are poetry and literature a part of Peter’s family heritage? How does his aunt Anna’s love of French surrealist poetry and his own preference for a poetry that can incorporate history and more realistic dimensions of the world play out in their relationship?

4. In the chapter “The Cemetery of Our Ancestors,” Balakian describes his search for his past as being like looking at a “worn rug” with some clear images and then holes. In “Reading a Skeleton,” he refers to this process as being like encountering “pieces of a puzzle falling out of a box.” In “Going to Aleppo,” he writes, “The past is ruptured, yet one excavates the shards.” What is Balakian suggesting by using these metaphors to write about the challenges of exploring the past?

5. Peter’s grandfather is conscripted to serve as a physician in the Turkish army during World War I, nursing back to health soldiers he knows might go back to the killing fields to rob and kill his own people (pages 248 to 251). What do you think of the way he handled this difficult situation? How would you feel if you were placed in a similar position?

6. Do you think the Turkish groups protesting the Genocide commemoration in Times Square were entitled to their protest? Why or why not? Do you think you would hold the same opinion of Holocaust deniers protesting at a Holocaust commemoration?

7. While contemplating the Turkish government’s denial of the Armenian Genocide (page 281), Peter articulates “how important it is to have grown up in a society that believes in the ceaseless process of critical evaluation.” What can happen when a society does not engage in a process of critical evaluation?

8. On page 292, Peter quotes writer and historian Deborah Lipstadt as saying, “Free speech does not guarantee the deniers the right to be treated as the other side of a legitimate debate when there is no other side.” Do you agree with this statement? Why or why not?

9. Discuss how the city of Aleppo in northern Syria could be both a place of refuge and part of the larger process of massacre and deportation. How does Peter’s grandmother’s experience in Aleppo help us understand what it means to be a survivor?

10. How would you describe how the Turkish government used the land and topography of Der Zor to create a killing center? Why is it important to understand Der Zor in order to understand how genocide happened to the Armenians? How have other perpetrators used the natural environment in killing campaigns?