Chaucer’s Books will host host author N.T. McQueen for a book talk and signing of his novel “Never Hide From the Devil,” 6 p.m. Wednesday, July 8 at 3321 State St., Santa Barbara.
In the book: The government wants them dead. Suren Simonian, 14, lives a familiar boyhood in the Armenian city of Van in eastern Anatolia ― attending school, watching fistfights, and trying to stay out of the way of Turkish gendarmes.
His closest companion is Hamza, his Turkish best friend, and most days feel ordinary enough.
But in the spring of 1915, rumors of massacres sweep through the region. Soon, Turkish troops surround Van with a single objective: the extermination of its Armenian population.
As violence closes in, Suren is forced to confront the meaning of loyalty, courage, and manhood in a world that has turned deadly overnight.
Inspired by a true story of resistance during the Armenian Genocide, “Never Hide from the Devil” is a coming-of-age novel about friendship, survival, and impossible moral choices in the face of unimaginable horror.
McQueen is a writer and college lecturer living in California.
“With a master’s degree in fiction from California State University, Sacramento, McQueen has brought unique perspectives on human nature to readers in his captivating novels ‘Never Hide from the Devil’ (Cennan, 2026); ‘The Cry of Dry Bones’ (2021); and ‘Between Lions and Lambs’ (2011),” Chaucer’s said.
McQueen’s writing has been featured in North American Review, Stonecoast Review, Entropy, Sunlight Press, Atticus Review, Dappled Things, Grief Digest Magazine, and Foreword Magazine.
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