The Turkish Aras publishing house has published the Turkish-language edition of the Armenian Genocide novel As the Poppies Bloomed (Gelincikler açarken) by Los-Angeles based Syrian-Armenian writer Maral Boyadjian, Ermenihaber reports.

The novel tells the story of young lovers Anno and Daron, who fall in love as their Armenian village, Salor, comes under increasing threat by Turkish authorities in the period leading up to the Armenian Genocide. The couple wants to marry and continue life in their homeland, but they are unprepared for the dangerous secret Daron’s father keeps or the dark days ahead.

Maral Boyadjian paints a timeless love story against the backdrop of one of the most dramatic tragedies of the early twentieth century – the Armenian Genocide. Unforgettably touching, As the Poppies Bloomed reveals a beautiful and heart-wrenching tale of love, loss and hope of two young Armenians who face seemingly insurmountable odds while the land of the sultans breaks apart and World War I rushes toward them along with the greatest massacre the world had ever known.

Born in Aleppo, Maral Boyadjian moved to Los Angeles, U.S. together with her family as a child. In 2011-2014, she paid visits to Van, Bitlis, Mush, Shenik and Sasun, the fatherland of her grandparents, survivors of the Armenian Genocide, for the first time. Boyadjian’s novel As the Poppies Bloomed was published in the U.S. in 2015.