"The right time to write will reveal itself. Look and listen for the signs and trust your instinct."
All About Me
Victoria (Atamian) Waterman is an accomplished advocate for women and girls, dedicating her career to promoting leadership and empowerment. She has made significant contributions through various platforms such as her TEDx talk titled "Today's Girls are Tomorrow's Leaders," numerous op-eds, media interviews, and receiving awards. Growing up in Rhode Island in a multicultural and multilingual household with Armenian Genocide survivors has greatly influenced her storytelling abilities. Now, Victoria aims to shed light on the often-overlooked stories of courageous women who not only survived but resisted the atrocities of the Armenian Genocide, becoming the pillars of reconstructed communities after the war.She is a frequent speaker on various subjects including her personal and professional journey, women's leadership, and providing business insights for non-profit organizations. Victoria has presented at prestigious events and conferences such as the 2023 AGBU Women Shaping the World Conference, Bryant University Women's Summit, Worcester Women's Leadership Conference, and Massachusetts Conference for Women. Visit her website and blogs to learn more. https: //www.victoriawaterman.net/
My HP Books
"Who She Left Behind" is a captivating historical fiction novel that spans multiple generations and delves into the emotional lives of its characters.
Set in various time periods, from the declining days of the Ottoman Empire in Turkey in 1915 to the Armenian neighborhoods of Rhode Island and Massachusetts in the 1990s, the novel completely immerses its reader in a lesser-known era and the untold stories of the brave and resilient women who became the pillars of reconstructed communities after the Armenian Genocide. It is a story of survival, motherhood, love, and redemption based on the recounted stories from the author's own family history. The narrative is framed by a mysterious discovery made almost six decades later of a pair of Armenian dolls left at a gravesite. Victoria Waterman's captivating debut is a searing, multi-generational account of one family's legacy of love, trauma and resilience.
Book Excerpt
Gürin, Western Armenia, Ottoman Empire, 1915
The village slept uneasily if it slept at all. Even the dogs were quiet,
tails and ears low as they slunk along the sidewalks, hoping for
scraps from the Turkish soldiers.
Further from the village center, the Karadelian house stood pale
in the moonlight.
Victoria rolled on her side to face her sister. “Are you
awake?”
“I don’t want to leave.” Yegsabet sounded far younger than her
thirteen years. She stroked her doll’s long, dark hair, so like their own.
“Can I take Nuri?”
At fifteen and not quite thirteen, they were both too old to
cuddle their dolls, but Victoria touched the hem of her own doll’s
dress.
“I don’t think so. Hayrig, father, said nothing that wasn’t essential.”
“Hasmik’s mother buried her jewelry in their garden.”
Yegsabet’s sigh was resigned. “We don’t have much jewelry.”
“We have our dolls,” Victoria said.
We could bury them somewhere safe.”
Yegsabet’s eyes widened. “And Nuri will be there when we can
come home?”
“Let’s do it. Under the big tree on the road to the village. We can
sneak out now and be back before Mayrig knows we’re gone.”
Now, under the sickly, waning moon, Victoria carried the hastily packed
bundle as she and Yegsabet crept through the shadows to the old olive
tree; she held her sister’s hand as well, as much to comfort herself as
her sister. Yegsabet carried the garden spade.
“Where?”
Her whisper struck the silence like gunfire; Victoria winced,
searching the ground near the tree for a good spot. “Shush. There.”
The dolls didn’t know what was happening, but she couldn’t bear to think of their unseeing
eyes, like dead girls in a grave.
Yegsabet’s eyes were huge and wet with unshed tears.
Victoria took the spade. “Tell Nuri to be a good girl, and we’ll be
back when she wakes up.”
Sweating and chilled, they slipped through the house, stashing
their dirty clothes under the bed and washing hastily.
The next morning, the soldiers came again, this time to escort
them out of their home, and out of the village that comprised their
entire world.
Victoria sneaked a last look at their house, its whitewashed walls
bright in the morning sunlight. Wherever the soldiers were taking
them, they said it was only for a little while, and their treasure would
wait under the olive tree for their return.
Book Trailer
Who She Left Behind Book Trailer
Book Awards
Book Reviews
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
"Victoria Waterman's captivating debut is a searing, multi-generational account of one family's legacy of love, trauma and resilience. With events unfolding in Massachusetts, modern Turkey and the Syrian desert, Who She Left Behind, is a harrowing tale of the Armenian Genocide which highlights the female voices long since erased or forgotten from history. Waterman breathes life into her characters, mothers and daughters separated and displaced by war, who join forces to uncover and heal historical and familial wounds. Her sumptuous writing and uncommon wisdom about the human spirit will haunt readers as much as it beguiles them. Who She Left Behind is a book about the beauty and terror of what it means to be human." - Aline Ohanesian, author of "Orhan's Inheritance"
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This touching multigenerational story of women facing trauma over decades draws readers to the harrowing journey of Victoria Karadelian, a survivor of the Armenian genocide, as she navigates the challenges of displacement, loss, and the quest for a new life. Losing her father and brothers in the war, Vicky and her remaining family face exile to Aleppo, Syria, only to be further separated as she becomes a maid in the Yavuz household—a situation she needs to escape from. "That was how it was," observes Waterman's narrator. "People moved on, or they were moved along." Spanning continents and generations, the story eventually turns on the discovery of a pair of Armenian dolls buried in a gravesite, holding the potential to reunite lost families and begging to heal an enduring intergenerational trauma.
Historical authenticity is a standout feature of Waterman's debut, as Who She Left Behind expertly delves into Armenian heritage, while the striking descriptions imbue this Aleppo with cultural richness and a vivid sense of the textures of life, from Ascension Day feasts to the intoxicating feel of a waltz. These ties connect the characters to the lost threads of generations over decades. Waterman brings insight and empathy to this cast, who emerge as complex and convincing people. Like her mother, Vicky shares the burden of shame from her fate in the Yavuz household. Determined to keep her secrets to her grave, she inadvertently creates an invisible divide between herself and her family—one that, decades later, her niece Rose is determined to resolve.
Distinguished by brisk storytelling and a deftly handled interplay between past and present, Waterman's novel portrays with power the dynamics of trauma and abuse faced by displaced women. Who She Left Behind is a moving story of a refugee's legacy and motherhood, extending beyond familial lineage to encompass the exploration of intergenerational trauma, displacement, and survival that readers of sweeping, thoughtful novels will find resonant.
Takeaway: A generational story of exile, displacement, and motherhood in a foreign land.
Comparable Titles: Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns, Kate Morton's The Secret Keeper. --- BOOKLIFE REVIEW
