news of the brutal suppression of an Armenian uprising, in the city of Zeitun and the mass deportation that followed. In a long passage, Werfel tells the story of Zeitun and introduces three more important characters of the book, the Protestant pastor Aram Tomasian, his pregnant wife Hovsannah, his sister Iskuhi, a quasi-feral orphan girl named Sato, and a houseboy named Kevork. Kevork, as a child, had suffered brain damage at the hands of the Turks. Iskuhi is the victim of a more recent atrocity: Her left arm is paralyzed from fending off a rape attempt. Despite her deformity, the Armenian girl's beauty and eyes attract Bagradian. The story the refugees tell causes Bagradian and the Armenians who live around Musa Dagh, to seriously consider resisting the Ottomans. Bagradian steps forward to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the villages and looks to the natural defenses of Musa Dagh and its environs. Ter Haigasun becomes his ally, in convincing the Armenian villagers of the peril. Book One introduces a German Protestant missionary Johannes Lepsius, a real person, and Enver Pasha, the Ottoman War Minister, who with Talaat Pasha and Djemal Pasha (the Three Pashas), the triumvirate that ruled the Ottoman Empire. The chapter, titled ″Interlude of the Gods,″ reveals the Turkish point of view vis-à-vis the Armenians and the West. Werfel intended his depiction, almost entirely drawn verbatim from Lepsius's published account, to be sympathetic and damning, especially when Enver consults with Talaat on the progress of the deportations. The remainder of Book One describes which Armenians decide on resistance and which on cooperating with the deportation order. Bagradian camps out with his family and friends on Musa Dagh, to ensure that it is the right place to make a stand. Those who decide to resist, dig up a cache of rifles left over from the revolution of 1908, when they were allies of the Young Turks and subsequently bury their church bells, so that these do not fall into Turkish hands. Eventually, the Ottoman military police, the dreaded saptiehs, arrive led by the red-haired müdir. They instruct the Armenians to prepare for deportations—and then leave after beating Ter Haigasun and Bagradian. Instead of complying, the 6,000 Armenians march with everything they can carry, their animals and their weapons to a plateau on Musa Dagh. Bagradian hangs behind and observes the wailing women and the other graveyard folk—who represent the