ISBN: 9789381626771    Publisher: Westland Year of publishing: 2012     Format:  Paperback No of Pages: 398        Language: English

On a humid summer day in August 1978, the Paris-Orly International Airport is teeming with people rushing to catch their flights. In the midst of this commotion, a sixteen-year-old boy stands alone, behind a pillar, watching the crowds and thinking about the terrible mission he has to fulfil. How oblivious these people are to the cruel fate that awaits them, how eager they are to catch a flight that will be their last...!

Gray Wolves and White Doves is the compelling story of a young boys quest for identity and belonging. It takes the reader on a journey from a remote village in Anatolia, to a dingy dark basement in Istanbul, a seminary in the little- known Armenian Quarter of Jerusalem, through Bavaria, and Sweden, and finally to Paris, where we find him on that fated day.

Parallel to the drama is the revelation of the minefield of politics in West Asia: the cycle of retaliatory violence that threatens to extinguish a life, a family, and even an entire race, at the altar of political exigency.

Rooted in the authors own experiences, this book is powerful testimony to the indomitable human spirit that triumphs despite all odds.
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John D. Balian was born to parents of no education and no means in a remote village in Anatolia near Diyarbekir, a historic Armenian city now in Eastern Turkey. He faced unimaginable tragedy that led to the splintering of his family that launched him into a life of destitution and wandering through several Middle Eastern and European countries. Despite cruel twists of fate, he eventually reached USA because of his own fighting spirit and survival instincts and the help and kindness of strangers. Dr. Balian attended Columbia University on a full scholarship and received a medical degree from Tufts University School of Medicine. Currently he is a senior executive of a US-based global corporation. Due to his reputation as a transformational leader in his field, Dr. Balian was recently elected to serve on the Board of Directors of the Armenian Center of Columbia University. He is widely published in trade journals. This is his first novel.
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