As a world war rages through Europe in 1915, Ottoman authorities commence the systematic slaughter of 1.5 million Armenians?the first genocide of modern history. Alone, a teenage boy named Kaspar Hovannisian escapes the ruins of his ancestral homeland to pursue the American dream. In the San Joaquin Valley of California, he cultivates a small farm and invests in real estate. But memories of Armenia burn strong?a complicated legacy of love, anguish, and faith in a national rebirth.

Kaspar's son, Richard, leaves the family farm and helps pioneer the field of Armenian studies in the United States, becoming a worldwide authority on genocide. Richard's son, Raffi, is also haunted?and inspired?by the past. In 1989, he leaves his law firm in Los Angeles to stage the original act of repatriation to Soviet Armenia, where he goes on to play an historic role in the creation of a new republic.

Part investigative family memoir and part history of the Armenian people, Garin K. Hovannisian's Family of Shadows is a breathtaking saga of tragedy, memory, and redemption that illuminates the long shadows that history casts on the lives of men.