For Armenia, I read Three Apples Fell From the Sky by Narine Abgaryan, and I absolutely adored this book. I read a lot of good books for the As, but this one is my favorite.

Three Apples Fell From the Sky is a novel about a village high in the Armenian mountains. The phrase “three apples fell from the sky” is also a phrase often used at the end of Armenian stories in lieu of “The End.” According to the book:

And three apples fell from heaven:

One for the storyteller,

One for the listener,

And one for the eavesdropper.

Three Apples Fell from the sky, pg. 7

There are a lot of compelling characters in this book, and I felt transported to the village of Maran, whose only connection to the modern world is a telegraph wire.

The village is more than a setting in this story. It’s a character as vital to this novel as any of the aging villagers–perhaps more. Every time I visit my Read Around the World cupboard and see this book, my heart fills with a cozy warm glow and for a moment, I am whisked back to a fictional remote village in a country I have never visited.

I will read anything and everything that Narine Abgaryan writes. Her writing is cozy and quirky, and her storytelling gave my soul a hug that made my insides sparkle and shimmer. For most of my life, Pride & Prejudice has been my go-to book when I need some comfort reading, but next time I need a cozy read, I strongly suspect I’ll be taking Three Apples Fell Form the Sky off the shelf.