Contributing Writer
Staff Page
Tallahassee writer Mark T. Mustian will be speaking at Stardust Tuesday, September 21st at 6 p.m. Mustian, who aside from being a writer is also an attorney and city commissioner, will be discussing his new book, The Gendarme, which was released last week.
The Gendarme is about Emmet Conn, a 92-year-old man who's suffered from memory loss since he was injured in World War I. Now, at the last phase of his life, he's starting to have visions, which he believes have more truth to them than fiction. In his dreams, he's escorting Armenian women and children from Turkey as a gendarme. He falls in love with a woman, Araxie, yet is separated from her as the trek ends. Convinced these visions are forgotten memories, he commits himself to finding Araxie - and ask for her forgiveness.
From the novel:
Alternating between Turkey at the dawn of the 20th century and America in the 1990s, The Gendarme shows how racism creates divisions where none truly exist, how love can transcend nationalities and politics, and how the human spirit fights to survive in the face of hopelessness.