The Meaning of Home

This thread traces the novel’s shifting idea of home, from a homeland destroyed by massacre to houses and communities built through shared care.

increasingBearing stren­gth in each eventdecreasing

A Lost Homeland

Home Destroyed The Armenian Community Rabo’s parents lose relatives, neighbors, and a whole social world in the Armenian Genocide. Their escape saves their bodies but cannot restore the place and community that made their lives intelligible. Exile Continued The family’s move to America provides safety without giving Rabo’s father a new sense of belonging. The novel distinguishes finding shelter from recovering a home.

An Accidental Household

A Home Made Uneasily The Barn and the House Rabo first lives and works in the potato barn, then shares a family home with Dorothy and their sons. He struggles to inhabit domestic life even when he has a place to stay. Edith’s Care Edith later makes a generous home in East Hampton, welcoming guests and animals. Her attention gives Rabo a kind of belonging he could not create through professional success alone.

Home in the Valley

A Promise to a Stranger A Dying Soldier’s Question A Canadian bombardier clings to the painted Rabo and asks whether they are home yet. The fictional figure cannot see Rabo clearly and does not know who he is. An Answer Offered Rabo tells him that they are home, turning the word into comfort rather than geography. The answer extends the novel’s idea of home toward a fragile human promise made amid displacement.

Before Rabo’s parents immigrate to America

After Rabo moves from New York to Springs

Near the novel’s ending, in the painting’s final conversation