Waterline By Aram Mrjoian

In this deeply moving debut, a close-knit Armenian-American family grapples with the aftermath of losing one of their own.

Outside Detroit on the island of Gross Ile, the Kurkjians receive news that Mari, the eldest of their youngest generation, has swum into the middle of Lake Michigan with no intent of returning to shore—the consequences of which drag out a deeply rooted pain passed down from generations before.

More than a century earlier, Gregor, the great-grandfather and patriarch of the Kurkjian family, survived the Armenian Genocide after fighting for his freedom atop Musa Dagh. In the present day, his epic mythos is inherited by his family as they navigate living in its shadow, decades later and miles away. As the Kurkjians struggle with their new, devastating loss, secrets and shortcomings rise to the surface, until each relative must Where does their own story fit in the narrative of their family’s fraught history?

For fans of Tommy Orange’s There, There and Thao Thai’s Banyan Moon, Waterline explores the complex beauty of diaspora, the weight of inherited trauma, and the echoes of the Genocide on contemporary Armenian life. This is a searing portrait of a family afloat in grief and the perseverance needed to rise above.