Arslan, Antonia 1938-

PERSONAL:

Born 1938, in Padua, Italy.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Padua, Italy.

CAREER:

Writer, archaeologist, educator. University of Padua, former professor.

WRITINGS:

Invito alla lettura di Dino Buzzati, Mursia (Milan, Italy), 1974.

Dame, droga e galline: Romanzo popolare e romanzo di consumo fra 800 e 900, Cleup (Padua, Italy), 1977.

(With Patrizia Zambon) Enrico Pea, La Nuova Italia (Florence, Italy), 1983.

(Editor, with Patrizia Zambon) Romanzo storico, d'appendice, di consumo: Guida bibliografica, 1960-1980, Unicopli (Milan, Italy), 1983.

(Editor, with Anna Folli) Il concetto che ne informa: Benedetto Croce e Neera, corrispondenza (1903-1917), Edizioni scientifiche italiane (Naples, Italy), 1988.

(With Franco Volpi) La memoria e l'intelligenza: Letteratura e filosofia nel Veneto che cambia, Poligrafo (Padua, Italy), 1989.

Editor, with Patrizia Zambon) Il sogno aristocratico: corrispondenza, 1889-1917, Guerini studio (Milan, Italy), 1990.

(Editor, with Adriana Chemello and Gilberto Pizzamiglio) Le stanze ritrovate: Antologia di scrittrici Venete dal quattrocento al novecento, Eidos (Venice, Italy), 1991.

Dame, galline e regine: La scrittura femminile italiana fra 800 e 900, Guerini studio (Milan, Italy), 1998.

(With others) Giovanna Zangrandi: Donna, scrittrice, partigiana, Aspasia (Bologna, Italy), 2000.

(With Laura Pisanello) Hushèr: La memoria: Voci italiane di sopravvissuti armeni, Guerini e associati (Milan, Italy), 2001.

(With others) Dal caucaso al Veneto: Gli armeni fra storia e memoria, ADLE (Padua, Italy), 2003.

Skylark Farm (novel), translated by Geoffrey Brock, Knopf (New York, NY), 2006.

(Editor, with Gabriella Romani) Writing to Delight: Italian Short Stories by Nineteenth-Century Women Writers, University of Toronto Press (Buffalo, NY), 2006.

ADAPTATIONS:

Skylark Farm was adapted for a motion picture, 2007.

SIDELIGHTS:

Italian writer and former literature professor Antonia Arslan's debut novel, Skylark Farm, appeared in English translation in 2006. Dealing with the Armenian genocide during World War I, this first novel was also adapted for a motion picture in Italy in 2007. Arslan based the novel on the experiences of her Armenian grandfather and his family. Focusing on the family of a well-to-do pharmacist, Sempad, the book details the horrors that befell more than one million Armenians in Turkey in 1915. Sempad, who has a brother living in Italy, is preparing his new country house, Skylark Farm, for this brother's visit. The genocide begins, however, and Sempad and other male members of the family are killed; the women are herded with others to be taken to death camps in Syria. Christopher de Bellaigue, writing in the New York Times, noted that this grim tale takes on new dimensions: "In Arslan's hands, the gruesome details of this tragedy are palliated by an old-fashioned story of redemption." Some of Sempad's family are in fact rescued by a former Muslim informer and by a Turkish suitor of one of the daughters and finally reunited with the brother living in Italy. De Bellaigue further commented, "Arslan seems instinctively a writer of magic and intuition." Chicago Tribune reviewer Christine Thomas found this novel "a finely wrought elegy of her family's survival," while for Christian Science Monitor critic Yvonne Zipp, the novel is "a story of hope that makes it easier for us to confront the horror of what happens when evil is allowed to run unchecked." A Kirkus Reviews critic also applauded this "fearless tale," and a reviewer for Publishers Weekly felt the author delivered a "vivid, powerful testimony of horrific cruelty and immeasurable loss." Higher praise came from Booklist contributor Ray Olson, who concluded, "this soul-shaking novel feels like a masterpiece."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, January 1, 2007, Ray Olson, review of Skylark Farm, p. 47.

Chicago Tribune, February 25, 2007, Christine Thomas, review of Skylark Farm.

Christian Science Monitor, January 30, 2007, Yvonne Zipp, review of Skylark Farm.

Decatur Daily News (Decatur, AL), April 1, 2007, William S. Allen, review of Skylark Farm.

Internet Bookwatch, December 1, 2006, "Writing to Delight."

Kirkus Reviews, November 1, 2006, review of Skylark Farm, p. 1087.

New York Times, February 4, 2007, Christopher de Bellaigue, review of Skylark Farm.

Publishers Weekly, November 13, 2006, review of Skylark Farm, p. 34.

San Diego Union-Tribune, April 1, 2007, Tiffany Lee-Youngren, review of Skylark Farm.

ONLINE

Antonia Arslan Home Page,http://www.antoniarslan.it (July 1, 2007).

Bloomberg.com,http://www.bloomberg.com/ (January 26, 2007), Hephzibah Anderson, "Indian Mutiny, Armenian Slaughter, African War Evoked in Novels."

International Armenian Network,http://www.ian.cc/notas/ (February 8, 2006), Virginia Collera, "Antonia Arslan profundiza en sus raíces para novelar el genocidio armenio de 1915."

Internet Movie Database,http://www.imdb.com/ (July 1, 2007), "Antonia Arslan."