Roots and Ruins: Life in a Lost Village and Twenty-One Years of Soviet Citizenship

In Roots and Ruins, Ali Askerov brings to life his boyhood in the Azerbaijani village of Black Bag in Soviet Armenia-a place of rushing rivers, changing seasons, and enduring traditions, now erased by war and politics. With vivid storytelling, Askerov captures both the warmth of village life and the upheaval of displacement as ethnic tensions flare and the Soviet Union collapses. His memoir is not only a testament to resilience and identity, but also a moving portrait of a homeland that endures in memory long after its loss.