REBECCA GOPOIAN
First Rule of Fire
Coming May 2026
A novel about how history can never truly be erased, no matter how hard we try to deny or forget.
Told in interwoven narratives, the novel explores the lives of three characters as they seek safety, love, and belonging.
The story begins with Jivan in Eastern Turkey, 1914, at the start of the Armenian Genocide, and follows the young teen through years of upheaval as the life he knows falls apart. The second thread depicts a day in the life of Araxie, Jivan’s future wife, a new mother grateful to have made it to America, eager to love and be loved, but haunted by her past. Lastly, there is Miriam, the half-Armenian, half-Jewish future grandchild of Jivan and Araxie, stumbling into puberty and attempting to navigate middle school in 1980s New Jersey, while her family’s unspoken history lingers.
At times dark and painful, the novel also portrays the hopeful and awkward moments of life, whether in the midst of war or the relative safety of American suburbia – having a crush, being fourteen, searching for your place, and finding your way.
Available at these Booksellers in May 2026:
Praise for First Rule of Fire:
"The prose in this novel dazzles and sings with a lyrical clarity all its own. The story itself and its inter-weaving between how the past lives on into the future is as compelling as you're likely to find. On all levels—the writing, the characters, the sequence of interrelated events—this is a book hard to put down, a book that had to be written."
Peter Markus, When Our Fathers Return to Us as Birds
“Sweeping across timelines, First Rule of Fire sends us on a voyage of memory, loss and innocence. The short chapters seem to burst from one moment to the next with tenderness, pain and warmth. First Rule of Fire tells us that no matter our past, the love of family can mend what has been lost.”
Aida Zilelian, All the Ways We Lied
“Gopoian masterfully balances past and present as she explores intergenerational trauma—and healing—in an Armenian diaspora family. First Rule of Fire is a bold assertion of life in the face of a violent history.”
Ben Nadler, Prairie Ashes
Events
Book Launch: Friday, May 15, 6:30pm
The World's Borough Bookshop
3406 73rd Street, Jackson Heights, NY
Book Talk: Sunday, May 17, 11:00am-12:30pm
The Ethical Culture Society
687 Larch Ave, Teaneck, NJ
Reading: Sunday, June 7, 4-5pm
Blue Heron Books
2109 NYS Route 213, High Falls, NY
Group Reading: Friday, June 19, 6-8pm
Adverse Abstraction at Otto's Shrunken Head
538 E. 14th Street, NYC
More to come...
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About
Rebecca Gopoian received her MFA in Writing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is the author of a poetry chapbook, Terrible Person, and a book-length poem, Two, about becoming a mother for the second time. Rebecca lives in Queens and teaches English at Hostos Community College in the Bronx. First Rule of Fire is her first novel.
