The Carnation Tablet

About the Book

A Young Woman discovers a worn Carnation Writing Tablet in a trunk filled with memorabilia from her recently deceased mother. It is a diary, of sorts – daily letters written to her by her father, killed in action in World War II. When he learned that his wife was pregnant, the overtly emotional young man began writing letters to his unborn child. Often he told her the frightening things he couldn’t tell his wife. The letters ended abruptly, less than one month before she was born. Now, some twenty-five years later, the daughter discovers the tablet. She knows that she has read it before, when she was a child. But why has this journal disappeared for so many years? Why and for how long has she forgotten it? Why had all the other memories of her lost father been stowed secretly away by her mother? As the young woman reads on, she falls in love all over again with the father she had once known. But the table unlocks much more than lost love. It stirs up clouded memories of unspeakable things and thrusts the young woman into a journey. The journey ends in a startingly but strangely beautiful way. A current of delicious Italian-American life flows throughout the novel – as it skips from Philadelphia to New Mexico, and on to the battlefields of Europe. Ultimately, Mary Chiavo must confront the past and bring her journey to its closure. The novel ends in Rimini, Italy, with an encounter of shocking and bizarre proportions!

About the Author

Irene Vosbikian has been writing for the past thirty-five years. She has written numerous free-lance newspaper and magazine articles. She is also accredited with two novels, both written before The Carnation Tablet. Her first novel, Bedros, is based on the turbulent life of her father-in-law who survived the Turkish genocide of the Armenian people in 1915. One and one-half million people perished in that atrocity. Bedros is presently being reprinted and will be available in late Spring. Her second novel, The Secret, is based on the miracle of Fatima which took place in Portugal in 1917. Mrs. Vosbikian had the distinct honor of obtaining special permission to interview the reclusive Sister Lucia who, as a child, was witness to the apparitions. However, realizing the delicacy of this story, the author chose not to publish the novel. Presently, Irene Vosbikian lives with her husband and family in historic Moorestown, New Jersey.