In 1988, a single innocent comment made at her college in southern California leads Katia, a new immigrant, to the discovery of long-lost relatives she knew nothing about. These were descendants of her grandmother’s siblings from whom she was separated because of the Genocide. As Katia decides to find answers to questions she had struggled with all her life, she uncovers stunning family secrets that ultimately lead to a decades-long search for something even bigger than her own identity.
“Forbidden Homeland immerses you in centuries of world-shaping history as its written pages become the rich landscape of a deeply personal journey…making you feel a part of it and reaching into your core. … In her riveting odyssey to find the missing pieces of her own identity, Karageuzian takes the reader with her to uncover hidden truths and connect past with present. She masterfully weaves her life’s unexpected twists and turns, layered within stories of Armenian Genocide, Lebanese Civil War, immigration, and current world events, and paints a vivid, living mosaic of the unique and shared experiences of exile and resilience, loss and rebirth, discovering finally that even when forbidden our homeland, if we search, we will find home.” – Ani Hovannisian Kevorkian, Filmmaker, The Hidden Map.

Katia Tavitian Karageuzian (Pharm.D.) was born in Beirut, Lebanon. In 1984, she immigrated to California with her family. In 1992, she received her doctorate in Pharmacy from the University of Southern California. She currently practices as a pediatric specialty pharmacist. Parallel to her career in pharmacy, when not spending time with family, Karageuzian paints, reads about history and politics, or volunteers with several non-profit organizations. Karageuzian attributes her love of writing and reading to her childhood years growing up in war-torn Lebanon, where she often found refuge in books.