First published to international acclaim in 1940, My Name is Aram is a collection of semi-autobiographical stories about a boy of Armenian descent called Aram Garoghlanian set in Fresno, California.

The book is novel-like in that the stories all involve the same character and are placed in a roughly chronological order, the first story taking place when Aram is 9 years old, the last when he is a young man leaving his hometown for the first time.

Each episode vibrates with warmth and humour, building a rich portrait of Aram’s large family and of the immigrant experience in general – an utter delight of a book, as easy to read today as it was when it was published almost 70 years ago.

Click here to visit the William Saroyan website.

William Saroyan - William Saroyan was born in California in 1908 of Armenian-American descent. Saroyan’s mixed ancestry was to shape his career as a writer. My Name is Aram is widely considered his masterwork. Saroyan died in 1981, aged 72.

Anthony Guise - Anthony Guise, himself an exponent of the short story, and extensively published in Britain and abroad, read history at Oxford and is a literary prize-winner. He lives in London.

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By the same author or foreword writer:
On Horseback and Other Stories By Guy de Maupassant;  Anthony Guise (Foreword)