The Forty Days of Musa Dagh

The Forty Days of Musa Dagh by Franz Werfel, translated by Geoffrey Dunlop and James Reidel

This is a somewhat controversial story of the Armenian genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Turks. The Turks were working to assert their independence and control over the region. The Armenians were Christian and thus did not belong. They had also done some bad things. This novel primarily deals with a small population and their resistance. They were forced out of their land (often based on some past wrong.) There were people that had differing views of resistance. There were also some internal struggles over property rights - even among those that had no properties. The book portrays the Turks in a bad light, and thus with America trying to keep a middle eastern friend, the powers that be were willing to limit the production of a film based on the book. The book itself is very long and reads similar to those covering Jewish ghettos.