Documenting her family’s escape from the ethnic killings of Armenians in Baku, Azerbaijan, Liyah Babayan takes us in this memoir into her childhood perspective of war and violence during her most formative years. Based around journal entries written by her at a young age, she describes learning English in America and her personal experience of how becoming a refugee shaped her.

Liyah takes the reader into her most private and personal space along with her struggle with identity, assimilation and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Her loss of innocence, longing for a childhood, and survivor’s guilt is conveyed through her emotional reflection about life after genocide. We meet a child who finds safety in detachment from everything around her and finds peace in the stillness and liminal space of her pending identity as an adolescent.

The memoir gives readers a glimpse of life in America and what it means to be a newcomer. On the other side of the American Dream, we learn about the mental health struggles of those arriving from war and violent conflicts and how they are expected to assimilate with little or no support. This memoir captures life’s inability to break the human spirit when a family is imbued with unwavering faith, unconditional gratitude, and sheer determination.

Books will be available for sale (cash, check, or Venmo only), and a book signing will follow.

Liyah Babayan is the Refugee Congress Delegate for Idaho. She is an entrepreneur, transformational coach and the author of Liminal, A Refugee Memoir, which has been featured at the Idaho Teacher’s Conference, Idaho’s Refugee Conference, and has been taught in schools in her hometown of Twin Falls and elsewhere. Liyah is a former refugee from Armenia. She is the first refugee to hold elected public office in Idaho, run for City Council and State Representative in Idaho, and was recognized internationally for her book, humanitarian advocacy efforts, and public service. In 2019, Liyah was invited to share her testimony to Congress in support for the recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

Photo credit: Drew Nash.