Turkish-Greek tragedy and a forced Deportation:
I was fascinated at this glimpse into another time, another place, a complicated culture unfamiliar to me. Exotic, powerful, it held shades of Greek myth, of tragedy.
Hooked on this history, I believed I could fictionalize my hair dresser’s story. Quickly I realized it was not enough to chronicle a family’s trajectory from poverty, to success, back to poverty, then follow up with the immigrant story of struggle in a new country. I wanted a back drop, a context, to set a stage for more comprehensive understanding for what I wanted to unfold – exactly what, I didn’t yet know.