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A “vivid and engrossing” narrative of one woman’s journey from shame and internal conflict to becoming a liberated, confident, and proud lesbian (Kirkus Reviews).
The descendant of survivors of the Armenian genocide, Arlene Avakian was raised in America where she could live free. But even with that freedom, she found herself a prisoner of both her family and society, denying her heritage along with her true sexuality.
After marriage and motherhood, Arlene found herself exploring the growing women’s lib movement of the 1970s, coming to embrace the strength of her grandmother—known as the Lion Woman—and realizing her full potential and personhood.
Inspired by her passionate feminism and strengthened by a loving lesbian relationship, Avakian recollects and re-examines her personal history and the story of her courageous grandmother, revealing a legacy of radical politics, fierce independence, and a powerful affirmation of ethnic identity in this “extremely readable and often painfully honest book” (Library Journal).
—Johnnetta B. Cole, former president of Spelman College
"Lion Woman's Legacy is a deeply moving, from-the-inside story of growing up as an Armenian-American woman in the 40s, 50s, and 60s. This tale of ethnicity—recollecting a holocaust nearly unknown outside Armenia—fully integrates race and class in its profound understanding of two worlds."
—Margaret Randall, author of Walking to the Edge: Essays of Resistance
"An exhilarating, often excruciating record of a woman's struggle for self-discovery and liberation, this remarkable odyssey of a second-generation Armenian woman is told with a novelist's skill, reminding us that America still needs people of vision and determination."
—Leo Hamalian, editor of Ararat