My Name is Aram

First published to international acclaim in 1940, 'My Name is Aram' is a collection of semi-autobiographical stories about a boy of Armenian descent called Aram Garoghlanian set in Fresno, California. The book is novel-like in that the stories all involve the same character and are placed in a roughly chronological order, the first story taking place when Aram is 9 years old, the last when he is a young man leaving his hometown for the first time. Each episode vibrates with warmth and humour, building a rich portrait of Aram's large family and of the immigrant experience in general an utter delight of a book, as easy to read today as it was when it was published almost 70 years ago.