In celebration of Women’s Month, Newmag publishing house proudly unveils a collection of stories by the esteemed modern Armenian writer, Susanna Harutyunyan. The author, editor and literary critic presented the new book on TV.
The new collection of short stories by Susanna Harutyunyan was presented on the Morning Show of Armenia TV. “The Guilty Past of the Forest” is a collection of 19 short stories. The editor of the book, Armen Amirkhanyan, especially emphasizes the importance of the fiction publication. “Susanna Harutyunyan has an important role in modern Armenian literature, she has something new to say, she is not boring, which is what I wish for her other colleagues because literature is what will raise us to the ranks of civilization.”
The language of Susanna Harutyunyan’s collection of short stories is humorous, sharp, and sometimes uncensorable. “Fiction has no age limit. If it is not childish, then everyone can read it, even if there are shocking expressions, or, as we say, 18+. These stories are humorous, and sharp, with unexpected twists. Modern literature has a major problem, we don’t speak in everyday life as the literary language requires.”
The book editor focuses the reader’s attention on the title. One of the stories is called “The Guilty Past of the Forest”, because the heroes are people left in the past, who cling to the past, to the traditional. Literary expert Hasmik Hakobyan considers Susanna Harutyunyan’s prose important because her heroes are us, ordinary human stories of modern reality, in the course of history. “The 19 stories are about people with different destinies, we will see ourselves there, and we will recognize ourselves. The author’s stylistics, character creation, linguistic and stylistic variety, and text structure are very interesting.”
One of the stories, for example, is about the twenty-year post-war situation, when there were two parallel realities in our families. On one hand, victims, prisoners, and their protesting parents, on the other hand, children demanding holiday and holiday gifts.
The literary expert astutely observes that Susanna Harutyunyan’s writing possesses a cinematic quality, characterized by evocative imagery and thought-provoking narratives. By carefully selecting distinctive titles, Harutyunyan prompts readers to contemplate deeper meanings and insights within her work.
“Why delve into Susanna Harutyunyan’s collection of short stories?” one might ask. It’s precisely because her stories serve as mirrors reflecting the intricacies of our contemporary human condition amidst the backdrop of shifting historical landscapes”.
Susanna Harutyunyan says that her stories are about HUMANS. These are stories with different shades, mixed with the theme of war. “In short, it is my literary summary of the last few years.”
Susanna Harutyunyan told what made her write and become a writer. “Envy made me write. When we moved to Yerevan, I was in the fourth grade, I had a friend who had written a poem. And that’s when I wrote my first poem.”
The author participated in readings of her book at the Frankfurt Book Fair, there were presentations in several German cities. “I realized that they know little about Armenian literature, but if my novels are translated, I guess they like them and read them. I will proudly say that any author’s book will become a bestseller if you deliver it diligently. Many good novels, writers, authors remain in the shadows, because they are not well served to the readers.”
Susanna Harutyunyan attaches great importance to the language of modern literature. “The most problematic aspect of this book was the language, and literature is the language itself. The condensed, canonical literary language has been greatly deformed or perhaps developed. Russian words have not yet been purged from our language, English-speaking words entered. Writing something in lively, good Armenian is heroic. You can’t write in pure language, but you can’t introduce foreign languages into the text either. You have to instinctively find the best option.”
Susanna Harutyunyan believes that in the modern world, everyone’s worries have become very similar, there are many wars and problems, and people aspire to simpler, primitive literature and films. “If we believe the readers and literary experts, my stories will be good films. But we are still not used to writing films based on the stories of local writers. Many films shot during the years of the Soviet Union were made with the scripts of modern writers, which are some of the important works of our film production today. “Where were you, a man of God?”, “Tteni” and so on”.
The General partner of the book is the “Renaissance” Foundation.