By Markar Melkonian

The story of a man who gave up a life of ease to lead the struggle of his Armenian brothers and sisters.

A California native, Monte Melkonian turned his back on Oxford University and a promising career as an archaeologist, and headed for the working-class slums of Tehran and the bomb-shattered streets of Beirut. He joined roadside prayers in Afghanistan, stood with rebels in Kurdistan, and gritted his teeth through surgery without anesthesia in a Red Brigades safe house. He organized prision strikes, spurned the emissary of President George H.W. Bush, and marched with a million demonstrators while the Soviet Union collapsed around him. Finally in 1993 he led a force of 4,000 men to victory in the Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabagh in an assult that stunned the world. By the time of his death at age 35, millions would hail him as a warrior-saint.

After Monte's death, his brother Markar traveled through three continents and conducted hundreds of interviews to trace the footsteps of his brother and solve the mystery that surrounded his legacy.

This book is not just the story of a long journey and a short life, but an attempt to understand what happens when one man decides that terrible actions speak louder than words.

281 pages, hard cover