A terrible, necessary book ...

... Primary Source: Did the Armenian genocide have its own Primo Levi? (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

... Balakian's story has a unique religious and political context. Victims of the Holocaust were often brought to question the existence of God, and even the possibility of meaning and order in the universe. Primo Levi famously wrote about Auschwitz as a place where "there is no why." But Balakian viewed even the worst trials of his people as a prelude to the rebirth of an independent Armenia--a crucifixion that would be followed by resurrection.